Witch Winnie's 'enforcer' dies in prison

As the article states, she is the female equivalent of teflon Zuma.

Too bad Richardson didn't hook up with Zuma. Then he would have been let off to 'die' at home like Shaik.

Jerry Richardson, the former “chief coach” of Winnie Mandela’s notorious bodyguard unit, the Mandela United Football Club, has died in prison. He was serving a life sentence for crimes allegedly committed in her name.

His death, at 59, comes at a time when the woman he called “Mummy” stands on the threshold of a remarkable political comeback.

Mrs Madikizela-Mandela, known across the country simply as “Winnie”, the disgraced former wife of Nelson Mandela, is number five on the parliamentary list of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

Under the country’s proportional representation system, she is certain to be elected to Parliament in elections on April 22 and widely tipped for a ministerial post in the new administration of the incoming President, the ANC leader Jacob Zuma.

Jerry Vusi Richardson, once one of the most feared men in Soweto, the Johannesburg township, was chief enforcer for Mrs Madikizela-Mandela, now 71, during the 1980s and 1990s when the townships were burning as the apartheid era entered its violent death throes.

The gang, which wore soccer shirts in the ANC’s gold, green and black colours, terrorised those condemned as enemies or “informers” – a dreadful accusation at the time, which usually brought with it a death sentence. Often, the allegations simply served as a front for criminal activities and excuses for resolving turf battles between rival groups.

Mrs Madikizela-Mandela and her protégé were jointly accused of the murder of Stompie Moeketsi, a 14-year-old activist who was kidnapped and tortured by the Football Club. After that, their lives followed very different paths.

Mr Richardson, who claimed at his trial that he was acting under orders from his mentor, was found guilty and sentenced in 1991 to life imprisonment.

He was barely heard of again. This week a prison spokesman said that he had died of “natural causes” in Leeuwkop prison, north of Johannesburg. He was in his mid-50s.

“He was one of the many forgotten foot soldiers in the war against apartheid, discarded when he was no longer needed by those more powerful,” said Fred Bridgland, author of Katiza’s Journey: Beneath the Surface of South Africa’s Shame, a book about the killing.

Mr Richardson gave only one interview after he was imprisoned. In it he said, he had lied on several occasions for his beloved “Winnie”, who in her heyday was a glamorous symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle.

Mrs Madikizela-Mandela, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing and says that the accusations against her are lies, was sentenced to six years' imprisonment by an apartheid-era white judge for her role in the kidnap and assault of Stompie.

However, her sentence was reduced on appeal by the then Chief Justice Michael Corbett to a fine of R15,000. At the time, there was widespread speculation that the decision was part of a political deal between the country’s last white head of state, F.W. de Klerk, and Mr Mandela, soon to become South Africa’s first black President.

However, the murder still hangs over Mrs Madikizela-Mandela and has tarnished her image as a fearless fighter of apartheid and “mother of the nation". Two films currently being made about her and her former husband are unlikely to dwell on the dark side of the battle against apartheid. Mr Mandela divorced her in 1996, saying that he had never been as lonely as when he lived with her after his release from 27 years in prison, by which time their marriage was beyond repair.

“There are still many skeletons in the cupboard but few people want the sordid truth to come out – much better the romanticised, sanitised Hollywood version,” Mr Bridgland said.

Yesterday, the original allegations were repeated by a former Football Club member, Katiza Cebekhulu, who is now living at a secret location in Britain. He told The Times that he remembered Mr Richardson as a cruel thug who was easily manipulated by his boss.

“Winnie, of course, should also have gone to jail. But she is the female equivalent of the African ‘Big Man'. Justice in Africa is for little people, not big ones,” said Mr Cebekhulu, now 38, who has lived in Britain for the past 12 year.

Instead, “Winnie”, who is still adored by the masses despite a later conviction for fraud for which she received a suspended sentence, is likely soon to be stepping in and out of a government limousine. Corruption charges against Mr Zuma, who is about to become the country’s fourth black President, were dropped earlier this week.