Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's declaration that anti-apartheid activists would use a gruesome killing method to liberate South Africa was a call to kill police informers in black townships, a former colleague testified Friday.
Murphy Morobe, a top black activist in the 1980s, told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that the 1986 call by President Nelson Mandela's ex-wife was like-ly interpreted as permission to wipe out informers."In a sense, in that environment, that interpretation is one of the most probable ones," Morobe said.
Madikizela-Mandela, in her most famous speech, sanctioned the gruesome "necklace" method of killing by saying: "With our boxes of matches and our necklaces we will liberate this country."
Necklacing is a method of killing in which a gasoline-soaked tire is placed around a victim's neck and set on fire.
The Truth Commission is investigating apartheid-era human-rights abuses for a report it will compile next year aimed at promoting reconciliation. It lacks the power to press criminal charges, but can turn over evidence to police for investigation.
The commission is investigating 18 human-rights abuses allegedly linked to Madikizela-Mandela and her bodyguards, known as the Mandela United Football Club.
A series of witnesses have detailed killings, torture and other atrocities the bodyguards allegedly committed in the Soweto black township in the late 1980s.
Madikizela-Mandela, 63, separated from Mandela in 1992. The couple were divorced last year and she took back her maiden name along with her married name.
Earlier testimony touched on the murder of Stompie Seipei, a 14-year-old activist suspected of being an informer. Seipei was abducted by the bodyguards, beaten and killed at Madikizela-Mandela's house in 1988.