Top Black Activists Oust Winnie Mandela

Leading anti-apartheid organizations said today that they wanted nothing more to do with Winnie Mandela, the black activist mired in controversy over the alleged brutal conduct of her bodyguards.

Murphy Morobe, the publicity secretary of the United Democratic Front anti-apartheid coalition, told a news conference: “The community shall have nothing to do with any of Mrs. Mandela’s actions from today onwards.”

Morobe spoke after reading a prepared statement that said: “The Mass Democratic Movement hereby distances itself from Mandela and her actions.

“We call on our people, especially the Soweto community, to dissociate themselves from the actions of Mrs. Mandela in a dignified manner.”

The Mass Democratic Movement is an umbrella title for anti-apartheid groups, most of which have been banned by Pretoria.

The statement charged that in recent years Mandela’s actions had increasingly led her into conflict with various sections of the anti-apartheid movement.

“We are of the view that Mrs. Mandela has abused the trust and confidence that she has enjoyed over the years,” it added.

“We are outraged at Mrs. Mandela’s complicity in the recent abductions and assault.”

There was no immediate comment from Mandela on the group’s action.

The statement was the harshest criticism yet of Mandela, wife of jailed nationalist leader Nelson Mandela and herself a symbol of anti-apartheid protest.

Morobe referred to the alleged abduction last month of four black youths by members of Winnie Mandela’s bodyguard squad, which until recently were called the Mandela United Football Club. The body of one of the youths, “Stompie” Moeketsi Seipei, was identified at a government mortuary Monday and police have started a murder investigation.

Mandela, in the few public statements she has made, denied she was at home when the four were abducted to her house on Dec. 29. But she has defended the abduction, saying the four were taken to protect them from sexual abuse at a Methodist church residence where they were staying in Soweto.

The church has denied the charge, and the anti-apartheid leaders made their denunciation of Mandela at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg.

Mandela has been widely criticized by community leaders in Soweto for not disbanding the 30-strong group of bodyguards.