More corpses have floated to the surface in the Winnie Mandela scandal as South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission prepares for hearings next week into her activities. The commission is believed to have discovered new information allegedly linking her to the murder of an 18-year-old Soweto student activist, Sicelo Dlomo, whose widely reported death was blamed on the apartheid security forces.Dlomo, a popular member of the Detainees' Parents Support Committee, a pressure group supporting those held without trial under the apartheid government, was shot dead in January 1988, shortly after being released from detention.His death received publicity because he had starred in Children of Apartheid, a powerful documentary made by the American television network CBS. The police had questioned him in detention about his involvement in the film. During his funeral police fired tear-gas to break up angry crowds gathered at his family home, the church and the cemetery.The truth commission has listed four other killings not previously linked to Winnie for investigation during hearings.The commission is also expected to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the death in detention of Sizwe Sithole, father of Mrs Mandela's grandchild by her daughter Zinzi. Sithole, an ANC guerrilla, appears to have been one of Mrs Mandela's ``foot soldiers''.He was found to have hanged himself in his cell by his own shoe laces, although he had been stripped of them when he was imprisoned. Sithole is believed to have made a series of allegations against Mandela - some relating to the Dlomo murder - to interrogators before he died.The ANC, it now appears, is doing everything it can to expose the extent of the scandal surrounding Mrs Mandela in an attempt to halt her campaign to become deputy president.Key figures in the movement who previously kept silent about what they knew have now volunteered to testify against her. They include Walter Sisulu's wife, Albertina, and members of the ``Winnie Mandela crisis committee'' which was set up in 1988 at Nelson Mandela's request to protect her.The commission itself - recognising that the Winnie inquiry will be seen as a test of its independence and integrity - is showing a determination to get to the bottom of the scandal. They have identified about 20 incidents including murder, abduction, torture and assault which they plan to investigate.The ANC signalled that Mrs Mandela had become fair game when the country's sports minister, Steve Tshwete, launched a savage attack on her, suggesting she was a liar, a ``charlatan who needs help'' and a closet rightwinger who had contributed little or nothing to the new South Africa.The attack was a response to a lengthy interview with Mrs Mandela in a Johannesburg newspaper earlier in the week in which she criticised the ANC leadership. It was seen as an opening shot in her campaign for the ANC's deputy leadership in an election at the ANC's triennial conference next month. The incumbent is likely to become the country's deputy president.Meanwhile the former state president P.W. Botha accepted a subpoena on Thursday summoning him to appear before the truth commission, after earlier saying he would refuse to testify. Botha has been quoted in the Afrikaans press as describing the commission as a circus. The subpoena requires him to appear on December 5.The commission's deputy chairman, Alex Boraine, said in a statement that Botha ``has invaluable information concerning the period under the TRC's review and without his input the commission's final report will be that much poorer''.
