Cradock Four memorial site
Twenty-five families and survivors of apartheid-era crimes brought an application in the Pretoria High Court against President Cyril Ramaphosa and his government on Monday.
From the Eastern Cape, they include families of the Cradock Four, the Highgate massacre in East London, and the Pebco Three from Nelson Mandela Bay.
The application calls on the President to establish a commission of inquiry into alleged political interference by the ANC-led government in the investigations of these crimes as directed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
It also seeks constitutional damages from the state to keep the investigations alive.
Odette Geldenhuys, the head of pro bono at Webber Wentzel attorneys, says these families are asking for relief from the president, the government, the minister of justice and constitutional development, the minister of police, the national police commissioner, the national director of public prosecutions.
"All of the mentioned parties received the application on Tuesday, so they have until the 10th of February to file a motion of intent to oppose the application," Geldenhuys adds.
Lukhanyo Calata, the son of Fort Clata, one of the victims of the Cradock four who was murdered by apartheid-era security police in 1985, along with Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkhonto, and Sicelo Mhlauli, says he wants justice for his father.
Calata was speaking at a media briefing by the Foundation for Human Rights in Johannesburg where 25 families are also alleging political interference by some in the ANC to halt the prosecution of apartheid-era crimes on Thursday effectively.
He said his family, and the others, want to know who in the ANC denied them justice.
“Our families were denied our constitutional right to justice when successive governments, starting with the one led by former President Thabo Mbeki, failed to implement the recommendations of the TRC’s Amnesty Committee. One recommendation was to prosecute unresolved apartheid-era cases of forced disappearances, deaths in detention and murders of anti-apartheid activists” said Calata,
Cradock Four
On 27 June 1985 Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto, and Sicelo Mhlauli failed to return home to Cradock from a United Democratic Front (UDF) meeting in Gqeberha. Their mutilated
bodies were found days later, and the murdered activists became known as the Cradock Four.
Forty years later their families are nowhere closer to justice even after the conclusion of two judicial inquests and testimony as well as failed applications for amnesty before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
A third inquest is scheduled to start in June 2025 after many key figures linked to the Cradock Four murders have died and thus escaped prosecution.
Pebco 3
Three leading civic activists from the Eastern Cape, Sipho Samuel Charles Hashe, Twasile Champion Galela and Qaqawuli Godolozi, were abducted in May 1985 from the Port Elizabeth airport in a joint Vlakplaas and Security Branch operation. The activists were taken several hundred kilometres away to the remote Post Chalmers farm where they were viciously tortured and murdered.
In 2004, Gideon Nieuwoudt (died 2005), Johannes Martin van Zyl, and Johannes Koole were charged with the abduction, assault, and murder of the PEBCO 3. Shortly after their bail hearings, however, Nieuwoudt and van Zyl applied for the review of the TRC Amnesty Committee’s refusal to grant them amnesty.
In 2009 the High Court ruled that an Amnesty Committee be convened to rehear the application of Van Zyl. Charges were then provisionally withdrawn against Van Zyl and Koole.
Inexplicably, the Department of Justice (DOJ) never convened an Amnesty Committee, and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) reinstated the cases against Van Zyl and Koole, who
have both since died.
1993 Highgate Massacre
In the Highgate Hotel Massacre, a group of balaclava-masked men shot dead five patrons at the hotel bar in East London and injured seven others on 1 May 1993.
The families and survivors of the massacre have been seeking the truth for decades. Nobody applied for amnesty and no arrests were made. No inquest was ever held.
Following years of uncertainty and struggle for justice, the inquest into the attack was eventually opened in 2023 and is scheduled to take place from 23 January to 7 February 2025 at the East
London High Court.
“The co-applicants are pursuing this case not only on behalf of their own rights but also in the public interest and for all survivors and families of victims who aim to address the systemic failure caused by political interference in the investigations and prosecutions of the TRC cases,” said Dr Zaid Kimmie from the Foundation for Human Rights.
The applicants are the survivors of the Highgate Hotel Massacre, Neville Beling and Karl Weber; as well as the family members of the Cradock Four, Richard and Irene Motasi, Caiphus Nyoka, the PEBCO 3, the COSAS 4, Nokuthula Simelane, Rick Turner, Musawakhe 'Sbho' Phewa, Hoosen Haffejee, Mxolisi 'Dicky' Jacobs, Imam Abdullah Haron, Deon Harris, Matthews 'Mojo' Mabelane, Ntombikayise Priscilla Kubheka, Ignatius 'Iggy' Mthebule and Nicholas Ramatua 'Boiki' Tlhapi.
