Winnie Mandela endorsed the most cruel form of torture

By The Newsroom
Published 23rd Apr 2018, 10:28 GMT
Updated 23rd Apr 2018, 11:51 GMT
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela, raises her fist as she leaves the high court in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2004, after winning her appeal against a four-year jail term for alleged theft and fraud. She endorsed the cruel method of killing known as necklacingWinnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela, raises her fist as she leaves the high court in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2004, after winning her appeal against a four-year jail term for alleged theft and fraud. She endorsed the cruel method of killing known as necklacing
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela, raises her fist as she leaves the high court in Pretoria, South Africa, in 2004, after winning her appeal against a four-year jail term for alleged theft and fraud. She endorsed the cruel method of killing known as necklacing
In a recent interview in The Guardian David Lammy MP described the late Winnie Mandela as his hero and added, 'No one is perfect, and I have not had to put up with the humiliations, the tortures, the nightmare of your husband being in prison for 27 years.' (Comment, April 7).

It is hard to think of a method of torture and killing more cruel than necklacing, which involve a tyre being placed around the neck of a victim and then set alight; the tyre stayed around the victim’s neck until he or she died.

It was a method of murder used only by opponents of the South African government in the 1980s; for all its cruelty the apartheid regime never resorted to burning people alive.

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The victims of necklacing were mostly — if not invariably — black.

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According to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission just over 400 people were killed by necklacing between 1984 and 1988.

Three quarters of those died in 1986 — the year the practice was supported in public by Winnie Mandela, the same Winnie Mandela David Lammy admires. Mr Lammy concluded his remarkable interview by contrasting Winnie Mandela with Boris Johnson, to the former’s advantage.

Mr Johnson’s many faults do not include — so far as I am aware — support for murder by immolation.

C.D.C. Armstrong, Belfast BT12

Related topics:Boris JohnsonBelfast
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