Search Results

I think from ’83 to be exact we had a strong COSAS branch here. Most of the time, I mean most of the campaigns that were taken nationally by COSAS - the way we preferred democratic SRCs and all other campaigns that were relevant to make our conditions better in schools - were taken up very ...

Poverty, repression and police brutality in the 1980s. The townships on the East Rand were seething. Six COSAS leaders died in July in 1985 after being lured into launching an attack with hand grenades, booby trapped by Vlakplaas policeman Joe Mamasela. At one of their funerals Maki Skosana was ...

The ‘COSAS Four’ Kagiso teenagers entrapped and killed by SAP

In October last year we told you the story of six East Rand COSAS activists who blew themselves up with booby trapped hand grenades supplied by Joe Mamasela. That led to the harrowing necklacing of Maki Skosana after their funeral. The Truth Commission hearing in Duduza paid tribute to Skosana last ...

They made me a target because of my involvement then with the UDF and COSAS. Because they used to hold meetings right here at my premises. And then as they were holding meetings here my phones were tapped and we had of course informers then, who used to tell them about the whole movement, what was ...

One of those was COSAS member, Thamsanqa Kamati. His mother and brother testified before the Truth Commission this week. // The following day I went to the mortuary. It was in a bad state. While we were sitting there, blood was just flowing through the door and into the drain. Inside, one corpse ...

The name of Eastern Cape police colonel Gideon Niewoudt was mentioned again this week. This time the accusation was almost more sinister than torture. The cruel trick of branding an anti-apartheid activist an informer as happened with Lubowski has destroyed many lives, some literally.

But this week Philip Lukhele, former COSAS activist and survivor of the incident placed Maki in the presence of Joe Mamasela several times during the period leading up to the incident. // Maki Skosana was in the black Jetta at Thubela’s night vigil as well as, at the black Jetta, she was present ...

Nearly ten years after his death the name of Caiphus Nyoka is still well known and respected in Duduza. He was a member of COSAS and chairman of the Student Representative Council at his school Mabuya High. // He was seen as a person who stood for the truth. He was detained several times for ...

For Elisabeth Makone, mother of the young COSAS member Ezekiel Makone who died in the attack, his death holds no reason. // It was very, very painful, I still can’t actually believe it, still can’t believe that it happened. That morning when I left home he was still there and he was on his way ...

Zenzile May was a student in Port Elizabeth, as a member of COSAS, the Congress of South African students, he was a matter of course beaten up and detained. But something else happened that changed his life completely. It began in Queenstown in 1979. // At one stage they took me from my cell in the ...

... So they said, OK, they will deal with me. And then they released me at the early hours of the day and then after about two weeks I heard from other COSAS members that there was a receipt that was dropped at the place that we use to frequent in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth. And this receipt had my ...

... also senior SADF officers have applied for amnesty for a number of murders committed by SAP operatives when they supplied faulty hand grenades to COSAS members in the course of 1985. At least eight persons were killed and seven maimed. This operation was authorised and approved by the former ...

... Elizabeth during the 80s. It happened that in 1984 I stabbed a guy, by the name of Mzolisi Goodman, and Mzolisi was actually an active member of COSAS. So, I stabbed him because he gave us a problem, you know in our area [inaudible] So, I went to Deon Niewoudt, actually Major Niewoudt a senior ...

Tango Lamane a fellow member of COSAS tells more of the police setup of Zenzile. // On this night, they arrived at the house and there were few other comrades with us in the house. Zenzile was not there. So, they got in there, there were some two or three other black security policemen with them, ...

... // Is it also not correct that Pebco formed a constituent of UDF which was the umbrella body? There were other radical political organisations like COSAS and COSATU, which had radical members. So, eliminating a specific grouping like Pebco leaders would have been inconsequential or futile. Would ...

cases like the Pebco Three and Fabian Ribeiro, they will also talk about elaborate plans to kill ANC MP Simangaliso Mkhatshwa and the death of eight COSAS members on the East Rand. Their amnesty application has opened the flood gates and dozens of former policemen have started filling in their ...

... from townships and from towns into the township, not by PAC. Although PAC was not involved, PASO acted in solidarity with their teachers and with COSAS. They wrongly targeted and killed Amy Biehl. We expressed our regret and condolences to Amy Biehl‘s family in a letter to the United States ...

... held in Kimberley from 10 to 11 June. Segments include the 1993 Kimberley hand grenade explosion aimed at the Bophuthatswana consulate that killed COSAS activist Ezekiel Mokone, incidents of torture in the region and the attempted assassination of Anglican priest Michael Lapsley while living in ...

... were killed along with their husbands. In the following segment a survivor of ?Operation Zero Zero?- a 1985 Vlakplaas operation in Duduza in which COSAS activists were killed by booby-trapped hand grenades provided by Joe Mamasela - gives evidence suggesting that Maki Skosana, suspected of being ...