ICTJ in the News

July 19, 2007

Cradock Four widows launch fight for justice

The Dispatch

By SABELO NDLANGISA

The widows of the Cradock Four are going to court in a bid to bring their husbands' killers to book.

Anti-apartheid activists Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli, Sparrow Mkhonto and Fort Calata - were killed in June 1985 by security police who mutilated and burnt the bodies to mislead investigators into thinking they had died in "black-on-black" violence.

Seven policemen applied for amnesty at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings. Only one, Eugene de Kock, was granted it.

Yesterday, the widows - Nyameka Goniwe, Nombuyiselo Mhlauli, Sindiswa Mkhonto and Nomonde Calata - revealed that they were challenging the constitutional validity of a National Prosecution Authority's prosecution policy which gives the Authority discretion to decide to prosecute or not.

The policy was amended in 2005 to deal with "the prosecution of cases arising from the conflicts of the past" committed before May 11, 2004. The NPA is required to take into account the seriousness of the crime, whether the victim favours the prosecution of the culprits, or whether the applicant
applied for amnesty at the TRC.

The widows believe the clause which allows the NPA "not to prosecute where this is in the public interest, even where a prima facie case has been established" empowers the NPA to grant "effective indemnity".

In papers filed with the Pretoria High Court, the widows say there is "at least a prima facie case of murder" against the men who did not receive amnesty for the murders. Nevertheless, the NPA has not prosecuted them.

"It is clear that the perpetrators of this crime have not been prosecuted, and through the amended national prosecution policy, may evade justice for their crime ... This is precisely what the application is intended to avoid," says the founding affidavit.

They argue that the policy "amounts to effective rerun of the TRC amnesty process" and claim it violates fundamental rights and freedoms, as well as "the rule of law and fair process".

The first applicant on the founding affidavit is Thembisile Nkadimeng, the sister of Nokuthula Simelane, an Umkhonto weSizwe soldier who "disappeared" after she was kidnapped by police in Johannesburg in the 1980s.

The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, the Khulumani Support Group and the International Centre for Transitional Justice have joined the five women in their legal challenge.

Nombuyiselo Mhlauli, in an earlier interview with the Daily Dispatch, said the full truth had not surfaced even though the culprits were known.

"It really upsets me to know that 21 years on nothing has happened. When they were not given amnesty we were excited they would be charged.

"I personally want to know who murdered my husband. He had 45 stab wounds all over the body and his right hand had been removed," she said.

The Cradock murders were the subject of two inquest hearings. At the second, concrete evidence of the state's "dirty war" against apartheid emerged. Included were documents that exposed for the first time the secret network established by former President PW Botha in the 1980s to combat the "total onslaught" against South Africa in the 70s and 80s.

At the apex of Botha's "total strategy" was the State Security Council, which he chaired, that was able to bypass normal government structures to counter the revolution taking place at grassroots level. The Eastern Cape was in the eye of the storm.

The court challenge comes days after the NPA announced it would prosecute former Minister of Law and Order Adriaan Vlok and former police commissioner Johann van der Merwe for their involvement in poisoning Reverend Frank Chikane in the 1980s.