Garden of Remembrance in Cradock
The death of former State President FW de Klerk has robbed the families of the Cradock Four of the truth about the murders of their husbands and fathers.
That’s according to the Fort Calata Foundation after De Klerk died on Thursday at the age of 85 following a battle with cancer.
Messages of condolence streamed in from political leaders who acknowledged his role in unbanning liberation movements and freeing political prisoners, notably Nelson Mandela.
But the Fort Calata Foundation said, “it was sad that another apartheid criminal has died without having accounted for the crimes he helped perpetrate against our humanity.”
“De Klerk takes to the grave information that was needed about deals entered into between former apartheid operatives and ANC leaders who betrayed us by entering into these agreements that subsequently prevented the prosecution of apartheid criminals,” said Foundation founder and spokesperson, Lukhanyo Calata.
He said the former statesman and Nobel Laureate “sat in on the meetings of the State Security Council where they had discussed the fate of Fort Calata and Matthew Goniwe between 1984 and 1985.”
Calata said the Foundation was calling on the National Prosecuting Authority of Truth and Reconciliation cases “before more of those implicated in apartheid atrocities die without being held accountable for their crimes.”
In 1992, De Klerk called for a second inquest into the deaths of the Cradock Four after the disclosure in May 1992 by the New Nation newspaper of a top-secret military signal calling for the "permanent removal from society" of Goniwe, Calata and Goniwe’s cousin, Mbulelo.
The second inquest began on 29 March 1993 and ran for 18 months in terms of the Inquests Amendment.
Eastern Cape Judge President Neville Zietsman, in delivering his verdict, found that the security forces were responsible for their deaths, although no individual was named as responsible.
In December 1999, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission denied amnesty for six security officers who were involved in the murders. Former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock was the only one who was granted amnesty (for knowledge of the murders – he was not directly involved).
