Johannesburg – The testimony of a father about an event that happened nearly a quarter of a century ago has linked Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to a double murder.

In 1996, Nicodemus Sono told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he last saw his son Lolo on November 13, 1988. He was in a kombi and had been badly beaten. With him was Madikizela-Mandela and members of the Mandela United Football Club.

On Tuesday, the Hawks said everyone in that blue kombi was a suspect in the murder of Lolo Sono and Siboniso Shabalala. They appealed to anyone who might have information about the murders to come forward.

The 25-year-old case heated up on Tuesday when members of the National Prosecuting Authority’s Missing Persons Task Team and the SAPS exhumed two skeletons at Avalon cemetery in Soweto.

The bones, excavated from two pauper graves about 50m apart, are believed to be those of Sono and Shabalala.

Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko said two murder dockets were being investigated. They were opened in 1988 when two bodies were discovered with multiple stab wounds in Diepkloof Extension. At the time, they were unidentified.

For more details go to http://www.iol.co.za