WORLD : Mandela Aide Charged in Death
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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Winnie Mandela’s chief bodyguard during the imprisonment of her husband Nelson was charged in court today with murdering a teen-age activist.
Jerry Richardson, 41, trainer of the self-styled Mandela United Football Club, pleaded not guilty to the 1988 killing of 14-year-old Stompie Seipei, whose death caused a furor around Winnie Mandela and her entourage.
Richardson’s appearance in the Supreme Court in Johannesburg came after the case had been repeatedly postponed for over a year.
Winnie Mandela has said her associates removed Seipei and three other youths from a Methodist-run shelter in Soweto township in December, 1988, to protect them from sexual abuse by a white priest--an allegation rejected by the church.
The boy, a well-known political activist in his own right, was found dead in a ditch, his throat slit, the following month.
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