SABC News | Sport | TV | Radio | Education | TV Licenses | Contact Us
 

Cradock Four

Explanation
Four Eastern Cape UDF activists were abducted and assassinated by members of the security police on 27 June 1985 as they drove back to Cradock from a meeting in Port Elizabeth. The four were Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkonto and Fort Calata from Cradock, and Sicelo Mhlauli from Oudtshoorn. Before their deaths, all had been frequently detained, tortured and harassed by the police. Their deaths sparked a national outcry and resulted in street protests in many regions across the country.

Showing 21 to 40 of 63
First PagePrevious Page 1234 Next PageLast Page
... Truth Commission hearings this past week we were given some insight into this mindset when three policemen applied for amnesty. We also visit Cradock on tonight’s programme, heart of the rural uprising against apartheid. And we talk to one of the most talked about men on the East Rand, ...
And as far as farms go one identifies at least three categories. What appears from investigations thus far is that there were farms which were used as headquarters by the security police or by Vlakplaas-type units. We had Vlakplaas; we had Andy Taylor’s Camp Adon, a farm he used as headquarters. ...
There were other storms brewing one of which affected Doris Hermanus directly. In 1984 the entire Lingelihle village council resigned and were accepted back into the community. They were the first of the black local authorities in the Eastern Cape to resign. Hermanus was one of the councillors, who ...
... eventually happen. // What in your view would be justice around their deaths? // Justice? OK it’s very difficult. Well a lot of harm was done to Cradock. He wasn’t just my father, he was the father of Cradock; they were actually the fathers of Cradock. Justice to me would certainly not be ...
General Mortimer’s submission was not received well. // I find it almost unbelievable that in 80 pages there can be no acknowledgement or acceptance that the SADF in implementing a policy of apartheid could bear no responsibility for a single death. I find it impossible to believe that those who ...
The perpetrators of my husband’s killing, they should not only be exposed, but they should appear in court so that everybody can see them. // And this was when Col Gideon Niewoudt’s name came up again.
‘The Violated’ // On the 15th of April 1996, almost exactly two years ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission took its seat for the first time in the East London City Hall. The road ahead was an unknown one. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu symbolically opened proceedings a solemn hymn swept ...
... The Motherwell bombing case: the state alleges that he was involved in the murder of other policemen. // At an inquest in 1993 into the murder of four other Eastern Cape activists, Niewoudt once again denied that he was ever involved in torturing the detainees. // Major Niewoudt also denied ...
put it into black bags. I had the instruction from Capt van Zyl to destroy all evidence of what I had done. I took it to the Fish River, just before Cradock, before you enter Cradock. I emptied the bags into the river and we left for Port Elizabeth. ...
... incident of physical violence two United Democratic Front committee members had been stabbed and set alight after an attack on their car between Cradock and Port Elizabeth. A police spokesman has named the two murdered men as Mr Sparrow Mkonto of Cradock and Mr Sicelo Mhlauli of Oudtshoorn. ...
There is no doubt that the amnesty hearing in relation to the deaths of the Cradock Four is one of the most important cases to be heard in the Eastern Cape. The Amnesty Committee has spent the last two weeks listening to testimony and they have now adjourned until June or July when further ...
... so called source of the death signal, signed by the JMC chairman, Brig Joffel van der Westhuysen. Last year the TRC heard from the families of the Cradock Four. They told of their suffering and loss of their loved ones. They also had many questions to ...
... tried to quell the growing defiance. Three weeks before the declaration of a national state of emergency in July the burnt and mutilated bodies of Cradock High School principle Matthew Goniwe and three comrades were found in a deserted beach area outside Port Elizabeth. Police said circumstances ...
... and Eugene de Kock delivering a few powerful side swipes from his corner, serious doubts have been raised about whether or not the killers of the Cradock Four are telling the whole ...
... previous programmes connected all these men to the killings of activists like Steve Biko, Siphiwo Mtimkulu, Sizwe Kondile, the Pebco Three or the Cradock Four. Gideon Niewoudt, Nick van Rensburg, Harold Snyman, Gerhardus Lotz, Daantjie Siebert, Ruben Marx and Eric Taylor. Perhaps the dramatic ...
The Amnesty Committee of the Truth Commission resumes its hearings this week. The murders of activists Stanza Bopape, the Pebco Three and the Cradock Four will be the topics of the hearings this week and may we remind you again that the Special Report can be viewed on Sunday evenings at six and on ...
‘Ambush and Killing: Cradock 4’ // It has never been the policy of the government, the National Party that people should be murdered, should be assassinated. I’ve said that clearly. Such instruction is in conflict with the policy as it has been at all times within my knowledge.
From one cover up to another. In Port Elizabeth this week the Truth Commission’s Amnesty Committee met to hear applications from seven security policemen who were responsible for the 1985 deaths of a group of Eastern Cape leaders who have become known as the Cradock Four.
According to Mamasela the Pebco Three were driven to this old police station outside Cradock. It was known as Post Chalmers.
... there was more detail from Eric Taylor and Gerhard Lotz, who together with Sakkie van Zyl stopped their victims on the road from Port Elizabeth to Cradock and took them to deserted sand dunes where, with help from black security reinforcements, they executed them one by ...
Showing 21 to 40 of 63
First PagePrevious Page 1234 Next PageLast Page
 
SABC Logo
Broadcasting for Total Citizen Empowerment
DMMA Logo
SABC © 2025
>