Forty years after their brutal assassination by the apartheid regime, the families of the “Cradock Four” continue their unwavering quest for justice, as a new inquest into their deaths unfolds in Gqeberha.
The untended graves of Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli, and Sparrow Mkhonto in Cradock stand as a poignant symbol of unresolved pain, overlooked by a decaying monument erected in their memory.
In June 1985, these four activists—husbands, fathers, three teachers, and one a unionist—were abducted while driving back from a political event. Their bodies were later found beaten, stabbed, and burned, a notorious atrocity of the previous regime.
Lukhanyo Calata, Fort Calata’s son, now a 43-year-old journalist, expressed the family’s determination: “We are not going to rest in this matter until there is some form of justice.” His mother, Nomonde Calata, in her mid-sixties, emotionally testified at the inquest about the brutal loss of hope and her husband, just two weeks before the birth of their third child.
She recounted how a 1985 inquest in Afrikaans, a language she didn’t understand, failed to identify the killers, and a 1993 inquest merely confirmed security police responsibility without naming individuals.
Even after the end of apartheid in 1994, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), led by Desmond Tutu, identified six police hit squad members involved but denied them amnesty, yet no prosecutions followed, and all six have since died.
Lukhanyo Calata noted he wasn’t surprised by the cover-up, as it was consistent with the apartheid authorities’ efforts to protect themselves in scores of government-ordered killings.
This latest inquest, however, offers a new glimmer of hope. For the first time, relatives are permitted to give live, nationally televised testimony.
The court has also visited the alleged killing site.
Nomonde Calata remains unforgiving towards a deceased former police officer who confessed, stating, “He robbed me of the love of my husband… I will not and did not forgive.”
Beyond accountability, these families seek answers for the lack of prosecutions 30 years after the regime’s fall, with lawyers citing potential delays due to “idleness, indifference, incapacity, or incompetence” or even political interference.
President Cyril Ramaphosa launched a judicial inquiry in April into claims of deliberate delays in prosecuting apartheid-era crimes, and a separate court case by 25 families, including these, seeks government compensation.
In Cradock (now Nxuba), residents who knew the activists, like Sibongile Mbina Mbina, still grapple with unresolved loss.
Mawonga Goniwe, whose uncle was one of the Cradock Four, stated, “It’s painful because it has been quite a long time… We wanted closure as a family. How did our family member die? The truth must come out… they must face what they have done.”
