The families of the slain Cradock Four have on Friday welcomed the decision by Justice Minister Ronald Lamola to accede to the request to reopen the inquest into the 1985 murders of Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli and Sparrow Mkonto.
The Justice Department said it acted on a recommendation from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
In a joint statement, the families said: “We wish to state – as we did repeatedly to the NPA – that we would have preferred the prosecution of those implicated in this heinous act, rather than reopen what amounts to a third inquest into the murders of the Cradock Four.
“However, the avenue of a prosecution was firmly shut by spurious delays and the eventual death of the last known suspect, Herman Barend du Plessis, in May 2023.
“Despite this, we look forward to the day when a court in democratic South Africa will finally have the opportunity to hear and evaluate evidence as well deliver us the truth about the murders of our loved ones.”
Nombuyiselo Mhlauli, the widow of Sicelo Mhlauli, told Algoa FM News she had mixed feelings about the latest development.
“I must be honest with you… I don’t know whether I should be excited about it, or not,” she said, speaking on the line from Cape Town.
“I am not feeling excited at all because it draws me back to the past, you know. I’m trying to think now what it is going to achieve now that everybody who was implicated in the murders is no longer there,” mam’ Nombuyiselo said.
“[But] on the other hand, I’m hoping it will reveal the truth that was never revealed at all, like who burnt them [and] disposed of their bodies in different places because they were together.
“What I’m trying to say is that there is a lot we are expecting to be revealed.”
On 27 June 1985, the Cradock Four left then-Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) after attending a meeting of the United Democratic Front and made their way home to Cradock – but never arrived.
The only people to see the four anti-apartheid activists alive were their killers, whose identity and motive remained unknown until the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established in 1996.
They were then abducted and murdered. Days later, their badly burnt bodies, with numerous stab wounds, were discovered in two different places.
“We are hopeful this inquest and the truth it will bring to light about the Cradock Four assassinations will help us as families, our community in Cradock, the Eastern Cape and South Africa at large, in our respective journeys as we seek closure and healing from the crimes committed against our humanity by the Apartheid regime of PW Botha and others,” the families said.
