Cold case detectives close in

13 March 2013 - 03:42 By GRAEME HOSKEN
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An elite team of police investigators is one step closer to solving a 25-year-old murder case with links to the infamous Mandela United Football Club.

The investigative team, comprising the Hawks unit that deals with crimes against the state, and the National Prosecuting Authority, yesterday exhumed two bodies from a pauper's grave in Soweto's Avalon Cemetery.

The bodies are believed to be those of Lolo Sono and Siboniso Tshabalala.

Central to the high-profile investigation is the Mandela football club, which at the time was linked to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

It is suspected that soccer club members murdered the two youths in November 1988. Their bodies were found in a field in Diepkloof, Soweto, with multiple stab wounds.

They were alleged to be apartheid police informers.

Sono and Tshabalala were killed days after a police raid on the club and team coach Jerry Richardson.

In 1997, Nicodemus Sono told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that Madikizela-Mandela and her bodyguards, who purportedly were Mandela United players, had brought his badly beaten son to his home in a minibus at gunpoint. He said the vehicle appeared to be filled with other "possible" victims.

During the hearings, Madikizela-Mandela denied her involvement in Sono' s disappearance despite assertions he was last seen alive in her company.

Sono's cousin, Frans Maluleka, an ANC operative and Richardson's police handler, was killed during the raid. Richardson later admitted to the TRC that he was a police informant.

In 1991, Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of kidnapping and of being an accessory to assault arising from the murder of 14-year-old ANC activist James Seipei, better known as Stompie. Her sentence was cut to a fine and a two-year suspended sentence on appeal.

The body of Seipei, who had been accused of being a police informer, was found in the veld near Madikizela-Mandela's home on January 6 1989. Richardson was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison. He died in prison in 2009.

Though the police yesterday stopped short of implicating Madikizela-Mandela in the killings of Sono and Tshabalala, they did reveal the recent discovery of "explosive" new evidence.

The Times understands that so "sensitive" is the investigation that President Jacob Zuma is said to be constantly briefed on developments.

Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko said central to the investigation was a detailed undertaker's report.

"The information is vital ... this case is highly sensitive with serious implications.

"Had it not been for this recent discovery, the case - through the disappearance of a missing person's report opened by Sono's father in 1988, which implicated certain people - could have been jeopardised," he said.

Asked if Madikizela-Mandela was a suspect or if she had or would be questioned, he said the team would be guided by the investigation.

"Should we need to speak to her we will ... we are without political influence ... whoever is identified as a suspect will be dealt with."

Madikizela-Mandela's personal assistant, Zodwa Zwane, said yesterday that Madikizela-Mandela was sick and asked that questions be e-mailed to her.

At the time of going to press, she had not responded.

For 25 years the youths' families have not known the fate of their sons, who are believed to have been buried less than 15km from their homes.

Two graves exhumed yesterday contained the bodies of four people.

They are all, according to the Hawks, thought to be murder victims.

Standing in front of the opened unmarked grave, an anguished John Sono said all they wanted were answers and for those responsible to be brought to book.

"Justice is far from done ... it has never been done. We know who did this and we will wait. We will wait another 25 years ... we will get our justice ... we will get Lolo and Siboniso their justice," said Sono as ANC members tried to stop reporters from questioning him.

Sono said they were hopeful that conclusive answers would come from the latest development.

It was only late last year, while a member of the NPA's missing persons team was searching a mortuary on another murder case, that two murder cases registered at Orlando police station on the day Sono and Tshabalala died were found.

Sifting through 40000 police dockets over 10 days, investigators found Sono and Tshabalala's murder dockets.

Family members recognised the men from their photographs.

Ramaloko said the discovery of recent information in January had given the investigation impetus.

He declined to say what the information was.

Asked how many murder cases they were investigating, Ramaloko said they would be guided by their investigation.

"It is sensitive ... we can't say too much ... we can say this investigation is a top policing priority," Ramaloko said.

Asked about the missing persons report, Ramaloko said they could not say whether it was deliberately stolen or destroyed. "For now all we can say is that it is gone ... this is strange ... but the undertaker's documents, which led us to the graves, are 'explosive' ... they will form the basis of our investigation."

He said the bones, which archaeologists and forensic anthropologists spent hours removing from the graves, would be sent to the US and the International Commission for Missing Persons, in Bosnia, for analysis.

David Tshabalala, who last saw his brother as a seven-year-old boy before going into exile, said: "Even if we know who did what, it will not change anything ... It is now up to the authorities."

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