Winnie filmmaker feels vindicated

THE producer of the documentary on Winnie MadikizelaMandela‚ Pascale Lamche‚ said the media briefing held by former minister of safety and security Sydney Mufamadi has vindicated her.

Lamche attended a media briefing held by Mufamadi in Parktown‚ Johannesburg‚ yesterday to explain his side of the story in the allegations that surfaced about a television documentary aired by eNCA.

The award-winning biopic, aired after Madikizela-Mandela’s death‚ sparking an outcry after it indicated a propaganda plan was allegedly put together by some in the ANC‚ the apartheid state and journalists to weaken her politically.

In his briefing Mufamadi lamented the fact that Lamche never gave him an opportunity to state his side of the story. However‚ he confirmed knowing some of the characters mentioned in the film‚ an act Lamche said confirmed that the film told the truth. “The minister … knew of these investigations and probably initiated them considering that it was such an enormous investigation‚ incredibly costly‚ a cross-frontier investigation that lasted several months. He sustained all of that. I was making the entire film about very secret things that were a number of different operations conducted to discredit Winnie Mandela. I think the former minister confirmed everything that was in the film and some of what was not in the film. He also confirmed that Jerry Richardson was paid in jail by the police for the information that he was giving about Winnie Mandela‚” Lamche said.

Mufamadi rejected the claim that he initiated the investigations, saying they came through a parliamentary process initiated by Tony Leon who led the opposition back then.

He admitted that he was part of a collective decision taken by the liberation movement during the apartheid era to distance itself from Madikizela-Mandela due to her insistence on continuing to run the Mandela Football Club against the wishes of the ANC.