From: vamg6792@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Vincent A Mazzarella)
Subject: UPI: Mandelas reported splitting up
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 01:31:20 GMT


	LONDON (UPI) -- South African black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela
is ending his 33-year marriage with Winnie Mandela amid continuing
revelations of her involvement in a string of kidnappings, killings and
beatings, The Sunday Times reported.
	The report on the front page of the newspaper's Sunday editions
followed reports Friday in South African newspapers that a woman
convicted last year along with Winnie Mandela for kidnap and assault
disappeared in mysterious circumstances from her room in a Soweto house
belonging to the Mandelas.
	Winnie Mandela, 57, will resign from the African National Congress,
the political group headed by Nelson Mandela, and ``retire from
politics,'' the Times said, quoting unidentified senior ANC members.
	An ANC spokeswoman, Gill Marcus, declined to comment on the report of
an imminent separation of the Mandelas, which has been widely rumored in
recent months as Winnie Mandela's legal problems mounted.
	The ANC sources quoted by the Times said Nelson Mandela, 73,
demanded, in a ``showdown meeting'' with his wife, that she retire. The
sources also said the marriage had been over ``for some time.''
	The sources said an official announcement would be made shortly, the
Times reported.
	The report followed accusations last week by Winnie Mandela's former
personal assistant, Xoliswa Falati, who was convicted last year along
with her of kidnapping and assaulting four Soweto youths. One of the
victims, 14-year-old Stompie Moeketsi, later was found killed.
	Falati, 38, told ANC officials she lied at the trial to try to save
Winnie Mandela from being convicted, that Winnie ordered the torture of
Stompie and that she had operated ``hit squads'' that carried out other
killings in the township, including that of a local journalist who had
been investigating her activities.
	Both Falati and Winnie Mandela were sentenced to six years in jail.
They were released on bail and were due to appeal their convictions some
time in the next three months.
	Falati telephoned The Sowetan newspaper Thursday night saying she was
not feeling safe and was in trouble.
	``There is something serious happening here but I can't tell you now,
'' the newspaper quoted Falati as saying.
	The Times reported Sunday that Falati claimed Winnie Mandela had
stormed into Falati's room last weekend with a pistol, and that members
of a ``hit squad'' she recognized as having worked for Winnie Mandela
came to her house looking for her Wednesday.
	The Soweto house where Falati was living was Mandela's original home
and the house the ANC president returned to after his release from
prison in February 1990.
	Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in jail for leading opposition to the
country's apartheid system before being released in February 1991.
Winnie Mandela during the time became a leading black activist.
	Winnie Madikizela first met her future husband in 1957 when he was
under indictment for treason. They married June 14, 1958, and within 90
days she was arrested for her role in a campaign against the country's
hated pass laws.

-- 
Vincent Mazzarella
College of Medicine, Neuroscience Program
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
e-mail:  mazz@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu  (Internet)