No evidence links Winnie to Stompie’s murder – former top cop

Former police commissioner George Fivaz, the first police chief of the democratic dispensation, said renewed investigations ordered by him around 1996 could not uncover information linking late anti-apartheid stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to the murder of Stompie Seipei.

Stompie was a 14-year-old activist and member of the notorious Mandela Football Club, established by Madikizela-Mandela as a front for mobilising young people in the township to fight against apartheid rule.

The child activist was allegedly abducted, tortured and killed after he was accused of being a police informer.

“There was not a single bit of information that fingered Winnie to say that she was responsible or not maybe personally responsible for the murder, that she gave instruction for Stompie to be eliminated. That was not found in terms of new evidence,” Fivaz told eNCA in a lengthy and detailed interview.

He said he had established a team of seasoned criminal investigators who reported to him on a regular basis after he had met with Tony Leon and Stompie’s family members, who expressed an interest in the status of the young activist’s murder.

The former police chief dismissed claims he had been pressurised by the late former president Nelson Mandela – Madikizela-Mandela’s former husband – as well as former president Thabo Mbeki and the then Minister of Police Sydney Mufamadi to reopen the case.

“That’s false. Basically, it was reopened as a result of my meeting that started with Tony Leon and the family of Stompie Seipei,” Fivaz said.

He said at first the team of investigators faced difficulty with carrying out their duties because they struggled to obtain documentation in the police docket.

“Some of the documentation went missing. They had to re-interview witnesses, they had to obtain new statements, but the end result, the bottom line is, they were not, and that was the final report, they were not in a position to find evidence of a constructive nature that linked Winnie Mandela personally to the murder of Stompie,” he said.

Fivaz said towards the end of 1997, he testified at Madikizela-Mandela’s appearance at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) about the establishment of the team of investigators and its findings.

From the late 1980s, early 1990s Stompie’s death has been dark cloud hanging over Madikizela-Mandela until her passing this week.

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