Winnie's file slips the finger
2003-04-29 21:52
Liela Magnus
Pretoria - A slip of the finger gave Winnie Madikizela-Mandela a clean slate.
The fingerprints of Madikizela-Mandela, taken when she was arrested on fraud and theft charges, were apparently faulty.
The police officer who took the fingerprints, duplicated a finger.
Senior Superintendent Marin Aylward, police spokesperson, said the mistake led to Madikizela-Mandela's record being misplaced in the crime records system.
The prints were taken when she was arrested in 2001. At the time, police did not yet have the automatic fingerprint identification system (Afis) and searches were conducted manually.
Because of the flawed prints, no previous convictions showed up on her record.
Aylward said fingerprints were classified in different categories after a person was found guilty. Madikizela-Mandela's crime record was filed under her "real" fingerprints.
The Rand High Court found her guilty of involvement in the abduction of child activist Stompie Seipei a number of years ago.
Madikizela-Mandela was also found guilty of crimes in the apartheid era. These crimes were not mentioned in police records that were handed in to the Pretoria regional court on Friday before she was sentenced on fraud and theft charges.
She was found guilty on 43 charges of fraud and 25 of theft after she and Addy Moolman handed in false applications for personal loans at Saambou Bank on behalf of staff of the African National Congress Women's League.
The state was aware that Madikizela-Mandela had previous convictions against her. The prosecutor, Jan Ferreira, quoted appeal court reports of her previous convictions.
Magistrate Peet Johnson found that her conviction in the Stompie case could not be held against her because it was not a crime of duplicity.
The state expected Madikizela-Mandela's legal team to request a postponement for the record dilemma to be sorted out. This did not happen and Madikizela-Mandela was convicted with a "clean record".
Aylward said it was not necessary for her fingerprints to be taken again. The mistake would be rectified as soon as the sentence had been recorded on the Afis system.
- Beeld