The African National Congress leader, Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, was labelled a liar yesterday at the opening of the hearing by South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) into her alleged violations of human rights. But her counsel hit back strongly, accusing her accusers of fabricating evidence against her and, in the case of her Soweto neighbour, Mr John Morgan, of being a self-confessed liar.
In his testimony Mr Morgan, who described himself as Ms Madikizela-Mandela's driver, admitted he had lied to protect her during her trial in 1991 for kidnapping. In his evidence yesterday Mr Morgan, who was given a suspended prison sentence for his role in the December 1988 kidnapping of a teenage boy and three young men, told the TRC that Ms Madikizela-Mandela had been at home on the night the kidnap victims were assaulted in her Soweto house and not at Brandfort, three hours drive away, as she claimed during the trial.
Mr Morgan made another startling assertion under oath. After telling the hearing that Ms Madikizela-Mandela had led the assault on the four kidnap victims, he described the face of the teenage boy, Stompie Sepei-Moeketsi, as being "swollen like a pumpkin" and said he had been told by Ms Madikizela-Mandela to "dump the dog".
Sepei-Moeketsi was later found dead in a field in Soweto.
Jerry Richardson, the coach of the Mandela United Football Club which served as Ms Madikizela-Mandela's bodyguards, was later convicted of murdering the teenage boy. Richardson, now a prisoner, did not testify yesterday but according to reports his statement implicates Ms Madikizela-Mandela in the murder of Sepei-Moeketsi. He reportedly states that he slit the boy's throat on her orders. One of the people listening to the evidence was Mr Katiza Cebekhulu, another co-accused in the trial who has since declared in a book by the British journalist, Mr Fred Bridgland, that he saw Ms Madikizela-Mandela stab Sepei-Moeketsi twice.
During yesterday's hearing, counsel for Richardson told the TRC that his client had admitted in his amnesty application to killing two young men, Mr Lolo Sono and Mr Sonboniso Tshabalala.
The TRC heard from Mr Sono's father yesterday that he, Mr Nicodemus Sono, had last seen his son with Ms Madikizela-Mandela in a minibus and that she, ignoring his pleas to release him, labelled him a spy whose fate would be decided "by the movement".
Mr Tshabalala's mother, Nomsa, testified that her son had gone to Ms Madikizela-Mandela's house in search of his friend Sono and had never been seen again.
Another witness, Ms Phumlile Dlamini, said she had twice been severely assaulted, once by Ms Madikizela-Mandela and once - for five hours - on her orders. The motive for the alleged attacks was her love affair with a member of the Mandela United Football Club. The hearing continues today.
Reuters adds: Though she laughed out loud at the allegations by the opening witness, Ms Madikizela-Mandela, who resumed her maiden name after President Nelson Mandela divorced her last year for infidelity, became more sombre and drawn as the allegations mounted.
Through her lawyer, Mr Ishmail Semenya, Ms Madikizela-Mandela denied all the allegations and denied knowing many of the witnesses. Ms Madikizela-Mandela was supported at the hearing by a group of women wearing dresses in ANC colours. They heckled the TRC chairman, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, when he repeatedly warned Ms Madikizela-Mandela's lawyer not to harass witnesses.
Ms Rita Khoza of the ANC's Women's League Soweto branch told Reuters that Ms Madikizela-Mandela was being framed to prevent her election to the leadership ranks of the party and the country.