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.

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Police commissioner Riah Phiyega is scheduled to testify on Wednesday before the Farlam commission of inquiry into last year’s Marikana shooting in North West.

“She will be called to give evidence on the role played by the South African Police Service on the events that are the subject of the Marikana Commission of Inquiry,” commission spokesman Tshepo Mahlangu said on Tuesday.

Mahlangu said Phiyega would be called by lawyers representing the police.

Phiyega was criticised in August after she said police officers should not be sorry about the shooting, near Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana, which left 34 protesting miners dead.

The commission is probing the deaths of 44 people during an unprotected strike at Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana. On August 16, 34 striking mineworkers were shot dead and 78 injured when the police opened fire while trying to disperse a group gathered on a hill near the mine.

Ten people, including two police officers and two security guards, were killed near the mine in the preceding week.

Sapa

Ladybrand police in the east of Bloemfontein say they are concerned by the increased incidents of child rape in the area and sentences need to be tougher.

This comes after the Ladybrand Regional Court successfully convicted and sentenced a Lesotho citizen to 20 years imprisonment for the rape of a 15-year-old girl near a dump site in Ladybrand last year. The man was sentenced on Monday.

The girl was walking home from a local primary school in Manyatseng, near Ladybrand with her 11-year-old brother when the incident took place. They were walking along the dump site when they met Motlatsi Sello.

He produced a knife and chased the boy away and later used it to stab the girl in her shoulder. He then undressed the girl and raped her.

Police spokesperson Lt-Col Annelie Wrensch said: “When he was done he went away and left the victim there. She managed to walk home and reported the matter to her mother.

“Cops were called and a rape case was opened.

“Two days after the incident the victim recognised the rapist at one of the neighbouring farms and informed her mother.”

Wrensch said the mother called the police and they immediately arrested Sello.

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