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Details of 'plot' to kill Mandela emerge in court

Nelson Mandela casting his first vote during the 1994 General elections at Inanda, Durban. Pic: Richard Shorey.27/04/1994. © Sunday Times.
Nelson Mandela casting his first vote during the 1994 General elections at Inanda, Durban. Pic: Richard Shorey.27/04/1994. © Sunday Times.

Shocking details about an alleged plot to assassinate the late President Nelson Mandela were revealed in the high court in Cape Town on Monday.

Major General‚ Andre Lincoln‚ testified that they even found a hand-crafted rifle — which would have been used to carry out the hit — under the desk of a senior SAPS member in Pretoria.

Lincoln said investigation into the assassination plan was covered up and “went nowhere“.

Lincoln‚ who had been tasked with leading that investigation‚ is suing the Minister of Police for R15 million. According to reports by News24 he is accusing police of a “malicious investigation and instigation of prosecution” against him.

In 2002 he was found guilty of several counts including fraud. However his name was cleared and he rejoined the SAPS.

Lincoln had been handpicked by Mandela to head up a special undercover unit to investigate organised crime into Mafia operations in South Africa. He probed the affairs of Italian mafioso Vito Palazzolo and then national police commissioner Neels Venter.

He said the unit was also tasked with uncovering the details of a plot to have Mandela killed during his inauguration in 1994.

Lincoln told the court that “for the first time in South African history” the high court in Pretoria issued a search warrant for the national police commissioner’s head office to be searched after their investigation into the plot was blocked by police at every level.

He said that a “hand-crafted firearm” was found under a senior police officer’s desk. But the plot was allegedly thwarted after the ANC’s intelligence structure caught wind of it.

The case continues.

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