PRESS RELEASE
To: All Media
ATT: News Editors, Human Rights Reporters
For Immediate Release
5 January 2024
CRADOCK FOUR Inquest to be re-opened
Press Statement issued by the Foundation for Human Rights and Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr
The Foundation for Human Rights and Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr welcome Minister Ronald Lamola’s announcement that there will be re-opening of the inquest into the deaths of the ‘Cradock Four’.
This year marks 39 years since the assassination of Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli, and Sparrow Mkonto at the hands of the apartheid regime on 27 June 1985.
The four Eastern Cape activists were intercepted by security police in a roadblock near Gqeberha. They were never seen alive again. Their deaths marked a turning point for struggle politics. On the day of their funeral, President PW Botha responded by declaring a national State of Emergency, which would remain in place for a number of years.
Their targeted assassination by the Civil Cooperation Bureau, apartheid’s top-secret hit squad, remained a matter of speculation for many years, while the apartheid government denied any involvement in the murders.
The First Inquest
At the original inquest opened in 1987 and concluded on 22 February of 1989, the Presiding Officer determined that the Cradock Four had been killed by ‘unknown persons’. No one was prosecuted for the assault or murder.
The Second Inquest
In 1992, the New Nation newspaper revealed a top-secret military signal that called for the ‘permanent removal from society’ of Goniwe, Calata and Mbulelo Goniwe. Then President FW de Klerk called for a second inquest into the Cradock Four’s deaths.
In 1994, the second inquest presided by Judge Neville Zietsman found the security forces responsible for the murders of the Cradock Four and established that a case of suspicion had been made out against SAP officers and South African Defence Forces (SADF) members. Despite these findings, no steps were taken against the SAP officers and SADF members.
Amnesty Applications before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
In 1999, eight former police officers applied for amnesty for their involvement in the arrest and murder before the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). They included Eric Alexander Taylor, Hermanus Du Plessis (who had drafted the Death Order for the murder of the Cradock Four), Nicolaas Jacobus Janse van Rensburg (who had processed the Death Order), Harold Snyman (former Security Branch Head), Gerhardus Johannes Lotz, Johan Martin ‘Sakkie’ van Zyl (who had headed up the Death Squad), Jacob Jan Hendrick ‘Jaap’ Van Jaarsveld and Eugene De Kock applied for amnesty in relation to the murders of Cradock Four.
According to their amnesty applications, it was Snyman who issued the order to have the four men killed, though Taylor confessed to the murders. Janse van Rensburg and van Zyl also testified that the four had been killed because they were seen as a threat to the government. Only De Kock and Van Jaarsveld were granted amnesty.
The TRC Amnesty Committee findings demonstrated that there was a prima facie case of kidnapping and murder against the perpetrators who were refused amnesty, however, again no action was taken. Since then, all of the alleged murderers on the scene have died.
Compelling SAPS and the NPA to hold the perpetrators accountable
The families of the late Cradock Four have fought relentlessly for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the South African Police Service (SAPS) to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of this torture and murder.
After a long legal battle to force the NPA to reinstitute the Cradock Four murder docket (it had mysteriously disappeared from their headquarters), another prosecuting body, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), finally agreed to pick up the case.
This ultimately culminated from the Calata, Mhlauli and Mkonto families launching an application in the Pretoria High Court in 2021 to compel the NPA and SAPS to finalise their investigations and to make a decision whether to prosecute the surviving perpetrators.
As late as June 2022 National Director of Public Prosecutions, Shamila Batohi, assured Parliament that a prosecutorial decision was expected within weeks, though it never came.
The possibility of criminal accountability died with the last surviving implicated perpetrator Hermanus Du Plessis, in May 2023. Du Plessis had drafted the Death Order for the murder of the Cradock Four.
Justice for the victims and their families
The Cradock Four matter is emblematic of government’s failure to effectively investigate and prosecute apartheid-era gross human rights violations, where amnesty for certain crimes was not granted nor applied for. The Cradock Four case was one of several hundred murder cases referred by the TRC to the NPA, which were suppressed by senior government officials following the winding up of the TRC.
The history of this matter is also an example of extraordinary perseverance by the families, who have been tirelessly fighting for justice. The re-opening of the inquest is welcomed, and still a bitter pill for the Cradock Four families seeking some semblance of closure.
The Minister’s decision to reopen the Inquest may be a window of opportunity to bring more evidence to light about what caused the suppression of the TRC cases and the failure of the NPA to carry out its constitutional mandate.
End/
Background
In the latter half of 1985, the Cradock Four, along with Goniwe’s cousin, Mbulelo Goniwe, and former student, Fezile Donald ‘Madoda’ Jacobs, came under increasing police surveillance. On 27 June 1985, the Cradock Four left on an organising trip to Gqeberha. As the rural organiser for the UDF, Goniwe would routinely address the organisation’s leadership there. The other three men went along to accompany him. That evening, on their way back to Cradock, the four were arrested at a roadblock set by the Security Branch. All four were arrested, assaulted, and murdered. Mkonto and Mhlauli were found in a dump near Bluewater Bay in Gqeberha. Goniwe and Calata were found in the bay a few days later. All the bodies had been badly assaulted and burnt.
While the police and the government denied any involvement in the men’s deaths, a copy of the signal message issuing their death warrant was anonymously sent to then Transkei Province’s Minister of Defence, Major-General Bantu Holomisa who forwarded the communication to Transkei’s Director of Military Intelligence. The document dated early June 1985 proposed the permanent ‘removal from society’ of Goniwe, Calata and Mbulelo Goniwe.
It later emerged that the men’s surveillance and murders had long been on the Security Branch’s agenda. Then Minister of Police Adriaan Vlok had personally surveilled Calata’s house a few weeks before the murders. The matter had also been discussed in a Cabinet meeting where former President PW Botha and then Minister of Law-and-Order Louis Le Grange were present.
To access detailed profiles of the Cradock Four and the record of the previous inquests and court application, please visit: https://unfinishedtrc.co.za/the-cradock-four/#243eriutrefds
The court application to compel SAPS and the NPA to investigate and make a decision on the prosecution of the Cradock Four perpetrators was supported by the Foundation for Human Rights and by Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr which is acting pro bono as attorneys for the families.
For more information on the “Unfinished Business of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission” Programme that is run by the Foundation for Human Rights, consult our website at https://unfinishedtrc.co.za contact Katarzyna Zdunczyk at kzdunczyk@fhr.org.za or Gina Snyman at gsnyman@fhr.org.za
For media queries | Foundation for Human Rights
Dr Zaid Kimmie, Executive Director: zkimmie@fhr.org.za/ 082 883 4934
Gina Snyman, In-house counsel: gsnyman@fhr.org.za / 072 180 7524
Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr
Tim Smit, Director Dispute Resolution: tim.smit@cdhlegal.com / 083 952 0007