The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission has delivered a stinging verdict on the former wife of President Nelson Mandela, blaming her for human-rights abuses that demanded further prosecution.
The commission found Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela accountable for a reign of terror inflicted on Soweto township in the 1980s by a gang known as the Mandela United Football Club, which it accused of involvement in at least 18 killings.
The once fondly proclaimed "Mother of the Nation" was also held personally to blame for assaults - including an attack on the pregnant lover of a man with whom Ms Madikizela-Mandela was involved - and accused of knowledge of murder.
"The commission finds that Madikizela-Mandela . . . is accountable, politically and morally, for the gross violation of human rights committed by the Mandela United Football Club.
"The commission finds further that Madikizela-Mandela herself was responsible for committing such gross violations of human rights," the commission said in its long-awaited report.
Ms Madikizela-Mandela was convicted in 1991 of kidnapping and assault and was dragged before the commission in 1997 in a separate inquiry at the request of Ms Joyce Seipei, mother of a murdered black teenager. The commission said that where amnesty had not been sought, or had been denied, prosecution should be considered in cases where there was evidence of gross human rights violations.
Ms Madikizela-Mandela has not applied for amnesty from prosecution, which under commission rules would have required her to tell the truth about what had happened and to demonstrate that any crime was politically motivated. Tens of thousands died in apartheid-spawned violence in South African townships like Soweto, the sprawling city just to the west of the country's economic capital, Johannesburg.
Against the smouldering backdrop of a pitched battle to beat apartheid, the commission painted a chilling picture of the fear inspired by Ms Madikizela-Mandela and the young men of her club.
A 30-page summary of its investigation into the football club said it was "feared and loathed" by the very community of which Ms Madikizela-Mandela was a leading figure during the battle to defeat apartheid.
She did nothing about this, however, and instead allowed a climate to evolve in which any who opposed her were branded as apartheid stooges, with bloody results. "Those who opposed Madikizela-Mandela and the [club], or dissented from them, were branded as informers, then hunted down and killed," the commission found.
Drawing on testimony from more than 40 witnesses, the commission detailed specific cases in which it found Ms Madikizela-Mandela had been personally involved in abuse.
The commission said the ruling African National Congress knew that things in Soweto had got out of hand and bore "some responsibility" for not making a more determined effort to bring her into line.
It acknowledged Ms Madikizela-Mandela's role in the liberation struggle, but said this had been tarnished by the subsequent disclosures of murder, torture and intimidation for which her football club is blamed.
"What is so tragic is that a figure such as Madikizela-Mandela, with her own rich history of contribution to the struggle, became embroiled in a controversy that caused immeasurable damage to her reputation," it said.