Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the combative former wife of African National Congress leader President Nelson Mandela, and president of the ANC Women's League, faces the toughest week of her controversial career.
For five successive days, South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) will be investigating serious accusations which implicate her in the murder or disappearance of several people during the struggle against apartheid.
Statements to the TRC by members of the black community link her to the deaths of Stompie SepeiMoeketsi (14), who was kidnapped at the behest of Ms Madikizela-Mandela; Dr AbuBaker Asvat, a Soweto-based doctor; and, according to recent press reports, Sicelo Dlomo, a young activist who was shot dead in 1988 and whose killing was blamed at the time on the security forces of the apartheid regime; as well as a string of less prominent murder victims.
Her accusers include people convicted of crimes who are seeking amnesty and who now claim that they perjured themselves during trials in the early 1990s which led to their convictions to protect Ms Madikizela-Mandela, then still a respected member of the ANC leadership corps.
Witnesses in that category range from Mr Xolisa Falati, a coaccused in the 1991 trial which led to Ms Madikizela-Mandela's kidnapping conviction but who, unlike the ANC leader, served a prison sentence, to Mr Katiza Cebekhulu, another co-accused who left South Africa rather than stand trial, reportedly at the instigation of the ANC, and ended up in a Zambian prison until he was rescued by the former British MP, Ms Emma Nicholson.
But testimony will not be confined to people of suspect motives: the TRC has subpoenaed 20 people to give evidence and invited another 13 to do so. The list of invited witness contains the names of high-profile and respected members of the ANC. Among them are members of the Soweto Crisis Committee, which was formed to deal with reports that Ms Madikizela-Mandela and members of the Mandela United football team were terrorising the Soweto community.
One of the names is that of Mr Murphy Morobe, who, speaking in the name of the Mass Democratic Movement as long ago as February 1989, publicly accused Ms Madikizela-Mandela of responsibility for Sepei-Moeketsi's death.
Another name is that of Ms Albertina Sisulu, a respected matriarchal figure in the ANC who was working as a nurse-receptionist in Dr Asvat's surgery on the day he was murdered.
Apart from the 13 invited witnesses, the TRC has another seven witnesses on standby. They include Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, immediate past ANC secretary general, and Mr Beyers Naude, a past general secretary of the South African Council of Churches.
Ms Madikizela-Mandela's acceptance of a nomination by the Women's League to stand as a candidate for the deputy presidency of the ANC raised the political ante sharply. So also did an interview in the Star last week, in which she attacked the ANC leadership, accusing it of reneging on its promises to the "disadvantaged masses".
The interview was followed by stinging attacks on her by the Sports Minister, Mr Steve Tshwete, who labelled her "a wayward charlatan" seeking popularity at the expense of principle.