Winnie Mandela endorsed the most cruel form of torture


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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Hide AdThe victims of necklacing were mostly — if not invariably — black.


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