Key Witness in Mandela Case Missing

Winnie Mandela pleaded innocent today to kidnap and assault charges but in a bizarre twist, the trial was halted when prosecutors said a key witness--one of the alleged victims--had again been abducted.

“I cannot expect my witnesses to come in here if their lives are in danger,” State Prosecutor Jan Swanepoel told the stunned court this morning after Mandela and three co-defendants entered pleas of not guilty.

The case was adjourned until Tuesday while police investigate the disappearance.

Mandela looked composed as she listened to the reading of the four kidnap and four assault charges.

“I’m not guilty,” she told Justice M. S. Stegmann.

The co-defendants pleaded innocent to the same charges, which allege that they participated in the kidnaping and assault of four young men in Soweto in December, 1988.

One of the youths, Stompei Seipei, was later found dead.

Prosecutors allege that the defendants were motivated by accusations that the victims engaged in homosexual activities with a white Methodist Church minister and that Stompei was a police spy. They say the youths were taken to Mandela’s home and beaten.

Mandela acknowledged that the youths were taken to her home but said it was to protect them from the minister’s sexual advances.

The church has cleared the minister, Paul Verryn, of wrongdoing.

In a written statement, read by a lawyer, Mandela said that she was out of town at the time and that a co-defendant, Xoliswa Falati, arranged for the youths’ care.

“I did not take part in any assault on any person, nor was any assault committed in my presence,” Mandela said.

Swanepoel then stunned the court by saying that Gabriel Pelo Mekgwe, a key witness and one of the alleged victims, was missing.

Mekgwe’s disappearance could severely damage the prosecution’s case by frightening the other youths from testifying.

All three have alleged Mandela beat them with whips at her home.