Mandela’s Ex-Wife Denies Murder Rap

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela denied allegations Tuesday that she ordered the murder of a doctor and blamed her enemies for trying to vilify her.

The ex-wife of President Nelson Mandela rejected accusations in a book that she ordered Dr. Abu Asvat’s murder in 1989. The book, “Katiza’s Journey” by journalist Fred Bridgland, was published Tuesday.

“Comrade Asvat was a personal friend, a family doctor and a man of deep compassion,” Madikizela-Mandela said. “To accuse me of his murder is depravity of a cruel kind.”

Two men - a convicted murderer and a fugitive from South African justice - have repeatedly said that Madikizela-Mandela ordered Asvat’s murder after he refused to help conceal her role in the abduction and beatings of four young men at her Soweto home in late 1988. The allegation also has circulated in the South African media.