Winnie Mandela Indicted for Kidnaping and Assault : South Africa: A Feb. 4 trial date is set for her and seven former associates.

Winnie Mandela and seven former associates were formally indicted Monday in a Soweto magistrate’s court on charges of kidnaping and assaulting four black activists nearly two years ago. A trial date was set for Feb. 4.

Mandela, sitting with her husband, Nelson Mandela, in the front row of the spare township courtroom, rose and solemnly stepped up into the wooden dock with her co-defendants when Judge T. F. Veldman called her name.

She joined the case as “accused No. 8.” She was not asked to enter a plea and was freed without bail pending the trial, which will be in Rand Supreme Court in Johannesburg.

The charges, which are likely to complicate peace talks between the African National Congress and the government, stem from the abduction of four youths from a Methodist halfway house on Dec. 29, 1988.

The state contends that the four were taken to Winnie Mandela’s Soweto home, where they were beaten by her and members of her bodyguard retinue. One, 14-year-old Stompie Seipei, was killed. A Mandela friend, Jerry Richardson, was sentenced to death last month for the murder.

The indictment unveiled Monday alleges that Nomzamo Winifred Mandela “did intentionally deprive” the four of their “liberty of movement.” It also says she assaulted each “by hitting him with open hands, clenched fists and a sjambok (whip), also by kicking him, by lifting him up and dropping him to the floor, by tramping on him and by hitting him on his knees with intent to do grievous bodily harm.”

At the hearing Monday, a dozen white policeman lined the courtroom. Television camera crews and curious residents peered through the bank of windows that line one wall for a glimpse of Mandela and her husband, the 72-year-old ANC deputy president.

Winnie Mandela, who often wears military-style khaki outfits in public, was dressed in a dark blue suit and high heels. She answered the judge’s questions briefly, in a soft voice.

“Mrs. Mandela, you understand you will be let out on your own recognizance?” the gray-haired, bespectacled white judge said at one point.

“Yes, your worship,” Mandela answered.

Mandela, 56-year-old director of the ANC’s social welfare department, has strong appeal among more radical ANC activists, and her militant stance has emerged frequently in recent weeks.

On Sunday, she told a crowd at the launching of a new ANC branch in Welkom that although the ANC’s armed struggle is suspended it must continue to recruit members and “prepare our own army for the future South Africa.”

“The price of peace is high,” she said. “It will be earned through the blood of our people.”

Klaus von Lieres, district attorney general, determined last week there was sufficient evidence to bring the charges against Mandela. The other defendants, five men and two women, were charged earlier this year.

Testimony in an earlier trial has suggested that three of the victims were abducted because Mandela thought the pastor at the church house, with whom she had a long feud, was sexually abusing them. Mandela accused the fourth victim, Seipei, of being a police informer, according to the testimony.

The judge in the previous trial, however, ruled that no credible evidence of sexual abuse or police spying was presented.

A small but vocal group of about 50 supporters gathered outside the courtroom to cheer the Mandelas’ arrival and departure. Winnie Mandela was serenaded as she left with a popular township song used to praise ANC leaders:

“Winnie Mandela, you have been called by the people,” the song goes. The chorus is simply: “Respond.”

Both Winnie Mandela and her husband declined comment. They have previously said they welcome the opportunity to disprove allegations made against her in previous trials.

The state had attempted to obtain an Oct. 30 trial date. State’s attorney Chris van Vuuren said it is “in the public interest that the matter be dealt with speedily.” But Mandela’s attorney, Ismail Ayob, argued that this would not provide sufficient time to prepare his case. He also noted that Mandela and her husband would be out of the country due to “the invitation of a foreign government.” The Mandelas are traveling to the Far East in late October.

Veldman agreed with Ayob that five weeks is insufficient time to prepare his case, saying that it will be “a lengthy trial that needs a lot of preparation.” The prosecution listed 30 witnesses and indicated the trial would last about a month.