The World - News from Feb. 23, 1989
A black South African pleaded guilty to killing a doctor who would have been an important witness in a murder case against two of Winnie Mandela’s bodyguards. Cyril Mbatha, 21, told a court in Johannesburg that he and another man shot the doctor, Abu Baker Asvat, during a robbery at his medical office on Jan. 27. The two bodyguards, members of the so-called Mandela United soccer club, were charged Tuesday with murdering 14-year-old Stompie Mokhetsi Seipie, who was found dead last month. Asvat is one of the last people reported to have seen the youth before he disappeared. Mbatha gave no evidence of any connection between his actions and Asvat’s possible role in the prosecution of Jerry Richardson and Jabu Sithole, the two bodyguards charged with Seipie’s murder.
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