Mandela's claim that she was propaganda victim supported

Two apartheid-era policemen yesterday bolstered Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's assertions that successive white South African…

Two apartheid-era policemen yesterday bolstered Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's assertions that successive white South African governments used covert action to discredit her.

Earlier in the day, President Nelson Mandela's ex-wife wiped tears from her eyes as a witness told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) how apartheid police had abused him.

Ms Madikizela-Mandela has, through her lawyer, denied the allegations of assault and complicity in at least six murders. She is expected to testify next week.

She has consistently claimed South Africa's apartheid-era governments waged undercover campaigns to smear her, and says the current accusations against her are a legacy of that policy. Yesterday she heard the country's post-apartheid police chief say her top bodyguard had been on the police payroll.

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But also yesterday Ms Madikizela-Mandela's ambiguous relationship with the apartheid police came under the spotlight.

Former human rights lawyer, Mr Azhar Cachalia, now secretary for safety and security, said it was difficult to understand in 1988 and 1989 how she was able to get away with so much more than other anti-apartheid activists.

He said some people in Soweto suspected that she was working with the apartheid police.

Questioned about that view, he said it was difficult to understand why she could drive around with her gang of thugs and keep weapons in her home at the height of South Africa's state of emergency while a year earlier she would have been prosecuted to the full extent of the law even for owning a banned book.

Commissioner George Fivaz said that Mr Jerry Richardson, jailed for the 1989 murder of the teenager Stompie Seipei, was paid for information over seven years.

Later two security branch policemen said information to discredit Ms Madikizela-Mandela was supplied to the former British prime minister, Mr John Major. The aim of the secret project, code-named Operation Romulus, was to smear her and sow division in the ranks of her husband's then banned African National Congress (ANC), they said.

Mr Paul Erasmus said the plan was revised by the National Party government in 1990 in order to "reduce the ANC to just another political party" before the first all-race elections in 1994. The plan failed to prevent the ANC from sweeping to power in the polls.

Mr Erasmus said he had used an agent in Britain to spread the disinformation. "I supplied supposedly accurate information to the effect that Mrs Mandela was giving her husband a hard time, was an alcoholic, was using marijuana, and such similar character assassination ploys as we could muster.

"Through bodies like the Conservative Monday Club in Britain and the Short Forum in the United States, the principal agent ultimately succeeded in getting information I supplied to members of John Major's government and to Mr Major himself."

Mr Erasmus said several British MPs were involved in spreading the information, including the former Conservative MP, Mr Andrew Hunter.

Mr Vic McPherson, a former head of an apartheid intelligence unit and now serving as deputy director of Interpol in South Africa, said the state's action against the ANC and Ms Madikizela-Mandela was a campaign of "political and psychological warfare".

Ms Madikizela-Mandela is running for election as deputy president of the ANC at the party's congress in December. She has retained popular support, particularly from the poor, despite the plummeting of her political standing after the death of 14-year-old Seipei. Ms Madikizela-Mandela was convicted of involvement in kidnapping the youth from a church home. However, her six year jail sentence was lowered to a fine on appeal.

The Truth Commission has heard evidence on Seipei's death and a key witness, Mr Katiza Cebekhulu, alleged this week that Mr Madikizela-Mandela had killed the 14-year-old boy after he was accused of being a police informer.

South Africa's Truth Commission said yesterday that it had granted Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and five cabinet ministers amnesty for their actions during the anti-apartheid struggle.

Others awarded amnesty were Mr Trevor Tutu, the Archbishop's son, and five right-wing whites.