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Cradock FourExplanation The sleepy Karoo town of Cradock is unique. From the mid 1980s it became the centre of rural resistance in the Eastern Cape. This week the Truth Commission made its way there to relive stories of murder and torture rigged on ordinary but militant communities by the state. 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. 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 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 ... ‘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 ... 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 ... 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 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 ... ... 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. ... ... 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 ... 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. ... Fourteen years ago three Eastern Cape activists known as the Pebco three were killed at a deserted former police station near Cradock. It is one of the most gruesome we have heard in two years of amnesty applications. This week, Joe Mamasela, self confessed multiple murderer and ex askari from ... An inquest in 1989 found that the men had been killed by a person or persons unknown. The deaths of the Cradock Four, as they came to be known, remained shrouded in mystery until May ’92 when the New Nation newspaper published a document said to be a military signal that called for the permanent ... ... 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 ... The Special Report team moves to Cradock this coming week for Human Rights Violations hearings and to Pietermaritzburg where killers in the ANC IFP conflict will ask for amnesty. Please join us next Sunday evening at eight for a full background report. Good night. ... first. And the first thing in the morning, at about 9 am, the joint security forces of Cape Town came in. That was Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Cradock, they just came in there and they started interrogating these people. And the first person to be interrogated was Sipho Hashe. // How were ... 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. ... 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 ... ... 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 ... |
