Stompie Moeketsi
*Stompie Moeketsi was killed on this date in 1989. He was a 14-year-old Black United Democratic Front (UDF) activist from Parys in South Africa.
Also known as James Seipei, he and three other boys were kidnapped on December 29, 1988, by members of Winnie Mandela's bodyguards, known as the Mandela United Football Club. Moeketsi was murdered on 1 January 1989, the only one of the boys to be killed. Moeketsi had joined the street uprising against Apartheid in April 1985 at age ten and soon took on a leading role. He became the country's youngest political detainee when he spent his 12th birthday in jail without trial. At the age of 13, he was expelled from school.
Moeketsi, Kenny Kgase, Pelo Mekgwe, and Thabiso Mono were kidnapped from the Methodist manse in Orlando, Soweto, the home of Methodist minister Paul Verryn. Moeketsi was accused of being a police informer. Screams were heard as Stompie Moeketsi was murdered, at the age of 14, by Jerry Richardson, a member of Winnie Mandela's "Football Club." His body was recovered on a waste ground near Winnie Mandela's house on January 6, 1989. His throat had been cut. Jerry Richardson, one of Winnie Mandela's bodyguards, was convicted of the murder. He stated that she had ordered him, with others, to abduct the four youths from Soweto, of whom Moeketsi was the youngest. The four were severely beaten.
