The investigation into allegations implicating Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela in serious crimes, including murder, went a stage further with her appearance before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). But yesterday's closed hearing - where she was required to answer questions to assist TRC investigators with their inquiry - was a prelude to her appearance at a public hearing on November 24th.
Ms Madikizela-Mandela (63) won the right at her first appearance before TRC investigators to publicly reply to her accusers, as well as an opportunity to study the questions which the investigators wanted to put to her in private.
After her brief appearance before the TRC investigative team last month, Ms Madikizela-Mandela formally accepted a nomination by the ANC Women's League - of which she is president - as a candidate for the deputy presidency of the ANC at its national conference in December.
In another signal of her intention to assume the offensive, she called a news conference where she produced witnesses who, she said, would prove her innocence. The press, however, was prevented by her lawyers from asking them questions.
One of Ms Madikizela-Mandela's witnesses is Mr Pello Mekgwe, who was due to give evidence against her in her 1991 trial for kidnapping but who disappeared for months at the start of the trial.
At the time of his disappearance, he was seen leaving Soweto, near Johannesburg, in the company of three ANC officials.
Her accusers include Mr Katiza Cebekhulu, a co-accused in the 1991 trial who, like Mr Mekgwe, disappeared at the start of the trial and was not seen or heard of until he was rescued from a Zambian prison and taken to Britain.
He claims to have seen Ms Madikizela-Mandela stab Stompie Moeketsi-Sepei (14), the youth who was assaulted in one of her houses and later found dead in the veldt in Soweto.
In a separate development, a delegation from the South African Agricultural Union is due to meet President Mandela today. The meeting is the sequel to a series of attacks on farmers, including the murder of a farmer in the Free State last Friday.
The farmers, suspecting that the attacks are part of a campaign to force them off the land rather they merely the work of criminals, are demanding that Mr Mandela appoint a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate the attacks.