Word: stegmann
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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First, four of the co-defendants jumped bail and disappeared. Then a key prosecution witness mysteriously vanished. Last week the two remaining witnesses to the crime refused to testify. Faced with the sudden flight of evidence, Rand Supreme Court Judge Michael Stegmann abruptly postponed until next month the start of South Africa's most explosive trial in recent years, to give the flustered prosecution time to repair its case...
...packed Johannesburg courtroom erupted in surprise at the start of the trial when prosecutor Jan Swanepoel told Judge Stegmann that a key prosecution witness who was one of the victims, Gabriel Pelo Mekgwe, had been mysteriously "kidnapped" the night before the proceedings. Subsequently, two other victims who were expected to testify against Mandela, Barend Thabo Mono and Kenneth Kgase, refused to speak when they took the stand. Said a terrified Kgase: "I feel strongly about the obligation to give evidence, but it's my life...
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