7A
INTERNATIONAL / The Charlotte Post
Thursday, October 2,1997
Winnie Mandela makes another comeback
By Gumisai Mutume
INTERNATIONAL PRESS SERVICE
JOHANNESBURG, South
Afl-ica - Outspoken politician
W^inie Madikizela-Mandela has
of^n had her back to the wall,
whenever analysts have pre-
di^d her pohtical demise, she
has been able to bounce back.
She faces another battle and
the outcome need not be different
frton previous occasions.
Madikizela-Mandela is sched-
ulgd to appear before the Truth
aiji Reconciliation Commission —
a body set up to investigate
apartheid-era human rights vio
lations — to answer allegations
o^er her role in 18 human rights
^uses, including eight murders,
^t the same time, she has been
nrfcinated by the African
National Congress Women’s
League of which she is president,
as its candidate for the ruling
party’s deputy presidency, to be
contested at its December confer
ence.
Madikizela-Mandela’s latest
battle involves an allegation that
she killed 14 year-old activist
Seipei Stompie. The claim was
made by Katiza Cebekhulu in
the book “Katiza’s Journey” by
joumahst Fred Bridgland.
Cebekhulu is a former member
of the Mandela United Football
Club, a group of Soweto youths
who served as Wiimie Mandela’s
bodyguards at the height of her
anti-apartheid activities.
The man jailed for Seipei’s
murder, Jerry Richardson,
alleged recently in a South
African Broadcasting
Corporation interview that he
killed another activist, Kuki
Zwane, on the orders of
Madikizela-Mandela. And anoth
er former member of Winnie
Mandela’s entourage, Nicholas
Dlamini, claimed that he mur
dered Dr. Abu Baker Asvat — who
examined Seipei before his death
— on her instructions.
'The TRC will also examine
whether Madikizela-Mandela
had a hand in the murder of
MUFC members who had fallen
out with her.
TRC investigative head
Dumisa Ntsebeza has said that
the hearing wiU only tiy to estab
lish whether there were any
human rights violations and if
there were, the commission
would then proceed with investi
gations. However the hearing
will not be conducted on camera
and evidence will not be made
public despite calls by
Madikizela-Mandela for a public
hearing so that she can absolve
herself.
She alleges it is all a ploy by
people within the African
National Congress to scuttle her
bid for the vice-presidency.
It would not be the first time
Mandela has been the target of
alleged dirty tricks.
In a post-1990 operation, police
agents set out on an anti-Winnie
campaign in which they planted
both fact and fiction in the local
and foreign media about criminal
activities of the MUFC.
Former policeman Paul
Erasmus went pubUc in June last
year and claimed that he co-ordi
nated the campaign, which may
have contributed to her divorce in
early 1996 from President Nelson
Mandela, to whom she had been
married for 38 years.
On the political front she man
aged to sail past opponents and
be re-elected president of the
ANCWL in July this year despite
a crisis that came to a head in
1995, when 11 members of the
league’s national executive, led
by ANC veteran Adelaide Tambo,
walked out in protest at her lead
ership.
Issues that emerged during
that time were the question
marks hanging over a check for
350,000 rand that she received
from Pakistan as head of the
women's league and allegations
that she was involved in dubious
diamond-dealing in Angola.
Mandela had made a dramatic
comeback in the ANCWL before.
In 1992, she had been forced to
withdraw from her position in the
women's league provincial office,
and all other posts she held in the
ANC following allegations that
she had abused party funds.
By December 1993, she was
back as ANCWL president.
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Qhana leader opposes USA’s
embargo against Cuba
PAN-AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY
CAPE COAST, Ghana -
Ghanaian President Jerry
Rawlings has lashed out at the
United States’ embargo against
Cuba, saying it is “morally
wrong.” He said to deny a sover
eign state the benefits derived
from external trade is indefensi
ble.
Rawlings’ remarks came dur
ing the second Africa-Cuba soh-
darity conference at the
University of Cape Coast. The
four-day conference, under the
theme “Free Trade and National
Sovereignty,” was attended by
delegates from several countries,
including Angola, Cuba,
Moeambique, Nigeria, South
Africa and U.S.
Rawlings said attempts by the
U.3. to broaden the embargo to
covfer trade between Cuba and
othj^r countries has generated
legitimate international concern.
GJiana is against the Helms-
Bufton embargo, which forbids
U.S overseas subsidiaries to
trade with Cuba and threatens to
punish any coimtiy that trades
with the island nation. Ghana is
gainst any law that violates two
injportant principles of intema-
tid&al law - non-interference in
the internal affairs of another
and the right of all nations to
determine their o^ paths of
social development.
Increasing opposition to the
tightening of the embargo
against Cuba, he said, has weak
ened the U.S. position because its
own allies — the European Union,
Canada, Japan and several Latin
American states - consider it
vriffiout any basis in intemation-
al'few.
AIDS screening called unfair
IJUSAKA, Zambia — Human
ri^ts activists in Zambia are
angry over requirements by
many coimtries that immigrants
and visitors imdergo mandatory
Hly testing, calhng the practice
“inhuman” and discriminatory.
The situation was highhghted
in a recent case involving three
Zambian journalists who were
refused entry into Canada after
testing positive for HIV. Human
rights activists have called on
wgrdd bodies to take up the situ
ation as a human rights issue
and are demanding redress.
Countries feel that by not
admitting people who are HIV
positive they will be able to
reduce the rate of infection.
However, the World Health
Organization has denormced this
practice, saying that it is not the
way to reduce HIV transmission.
The mandatory testing have
made some Zambians more cau
tious when choosing cormtries for
advanced studies.
“We now take into considera
tion the coirntrys pohcy regard
ing HIV/AIDS testing. For exam
ple, I have accepted that I will
not even apply to the United
States or Canada for training -
not because I am HIV positive,
but becairse I refuse to be forced
to undergo a test,” said Martin
Mwamba, a physiotherapist.
BRIEFS
Some Zambians see the practice
as having racial overtones.
Winston Zulu, an AIDS activist,
says it is strange that it is mostly
the developed cormtries where a
majority of the population is
white that are insisting on this
compulsory testing, while devel
oping countries “meekly allow
their people to be led like rabbits”
to the laboratories for testing.
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4TH
A Poem
Does it hurl us to be kind
Or is there more satisfaction in doing crime
That only leads to the brothers making time
Pathways to find, like working a job from 9 to 5
Will help our brother stay alive and out of trouble
Because only the strong can survive
Too many of our love ones have died
Too many in the grave
Many, many more to save
No more mistakes to be made
Got to learn how to behave and
Stop going around making waves
We’ve become no belter than our relatives who were enslaved
Don’t you listen to those fools out there
Become dead, broke with a sad prayer
and never never have bus fare
Stay in school or learn a trade
You don’t always have
to go to college to get that knowledge
Do it right see the light
Go to bed and have a good night
Kill the hate before it’s too late
We need an international day of prayer
To let others know we care
It is not all about us
Then perhaps that will guiet some of the fuss
Let’s kill the hate before its too late
by
Carolyn Blakeney-Saunders
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