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PEBCO ThreeExplanation Not all the stories told in East London were as well known as those of the Pebco Three and the Cradock Four, but their accounts were no less disturbing. Nohle Mohapi was Steve Biko’s secretary, her husband Mapetla was killed in police cells. // After the death of Mapetla I was full of hate. I was ... This week our team goes to Port Elizabeth for an amnesty hearing around the killings of the Pebco Three. We’ll meet again next Sunday at six. Good night. ... Report has in 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. ... ... about a mean and petty past. As I regard myself today, as a disgrace to my mother, my family and my relatives, my friends and the families of the Pebco Three and the nation as such, it is with my deepest remorse that I ask for forgiveness and hopefully wishes to be reconciled with everybody ... Tonight we will give the PEBCO family some answers. Colleague Jacques Pauw takes up the story. According to Mamasela the Pebco Three were driven to this old police station outside Cradock. It was known as Post Chalmers. Post Chalmers is not only the place where the Pebco three were killed. Today we know that this deserted farm and its house of horrors is also the place where the security police killed two other Eastern Cape activists: Siphiwo Mtimkulu and his friend Topsy Madaka. Vlakplaas it seems is not the only ... At the first hearing of the Truth Commission in April this year three widows testified about the disappearance of their husbands, known as the Pebco three. The men, Qaqawuli Godolozi, Sipho Hashe and Champion Galela were UDF activists who led the Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation. They were ... Kimpani Mogoai and Johannes Koole did not present themselves as blames. Of the nine applicants they were the only two who acknowledged that the Pebco Three were assaulted and they are the only two who have applied for amnesty for their role in the assaults. Port Elizabeth was ungovernable. And I want to go even further and say that Pebco was in control here. // The activists were winning the war, or had already done so. There was feedback from the secretariat, the Security Council, which was received by the JMC to the effect that the government was ... ... because they sold me out to the Boers on a silver platter and then they left me out. // Do you know why your version in this matter, in this Pebco Three matter, differs from all the other people who testified here? // Yes, it’s because I’m telling the truth and they’re covering ... ... The Motherwell bomb attack, the killing of Matthew Goniwe and three others, known as the Cradock Four, Siphiwo Mtimkulu, Sizwe Kondile and the Pebco Three. These men have finally told the families how they kidnapped, tortured and murdered their loved ones, before their bodies were set alight ... ... racing course outside Port Elizabeth. Immediately we knew that something serious had happened. We had pointers because in May, as you know, the Pebco Three disappeared without a trace. Relatives in the community were informed and some members of the family had to go to Port Elizabeth to ... ... the TRC to the people where it belongs. Yes, I would say that largely we have been able to uncover the truth. You need just to think of say the Pebco Three; the sort of things that we now know. Or the bombing of Khotso House, or the Cradock Four and perhaps most heartrendingly you might refer ... The Eastern Cape security branch vehemently deny Mamasela’s version of how the Pebco three were killed. And do you believe that the murder of the Pebco Three was warranted. // At that stage yes. ... my situation. I don’t want to cry. Really I don’t want to cry, but I want the Commission to help me.’ // Her husband, Sipho was one of the Pebco Three who were abducted and murdered by the notorious Eastern Cape security police in May 1985. Their bodies were then thrown into the Fish ... The question of whether or not the Pebco Three were assaulted before they died is crucial to whether the applicants are granted amnesty. If the activists were beaten to death, the security policemen will have difficulty convincing the Committee that such brutality was in proportion to the political ... The applicants contradict each other on the purpose of the abduction. The askaris and policemen from Vlakplaas whose applications will be heard this week will say they were abducting the Pebco Three for the purpose of interrogation. They also say they did not know of the elimination plan. ... of the Vlakplaas squad. Former askari Kimpani Mogoai and policeman Johannes Koole are asking for amnesty for the abduction and assault of the Pebco Three. Their commander, Roelf Venter and his right hand man, Gert Beeslaar deny that the three activists were assaulted. The security police ... |