Mbeki submits broadcast to inquiry

Former president Thabo Mbeki submitted a sound clip of a Radio Freedom speech to the Khampepe Commission of inquiry into delayed post-TRC prosecutions. The broadcast was made on the eve of the Cradock Four funeral.

Who were the Cradock Four

Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli were UDF activists abducted by security police on twenty-seven June nineteen eighty-five.They were assaulted, stabbed, strangled with telephone wire, shot and their bodies burned and mutilated.

Security forces found responsible

In nineteen ninety-three, at a reopened inquest, Judge Neville Zietsman found that security forces were responsible for the deaths of the Cradock Four, although no individual was named. All security police members have since died.

State Security Council meeting in nineteen eighty-four

In March nineteen eighty-four, the State Security Council met with twelve Cabinet ministers including FW de Klerk and Barend du Plessis.

Du Plessis acknowledges murder order

In March this year, Barend du Plessis testified at the reopened inquest and agreed that an order requesting the permanent removal from society of the Cradock Four activists implied their murder.

Six denied amnesty for murders

Six security policemen applied for and were denied amnesty for the murders: Nick Janse van Rensburg, Johan van Zyl, Eric Alexander Taylor, Hermanus Barend du Plessis, Harold Snyman and Gerhardus Lotz.

De Kock denies planning involvement

At the reopened twenty twenty-six inquest, former Vlakplaas commander Eugene De Kock testified that the murder was planned independently by the Port Elizabeth Security Branch and that the activists had not been considered a threat.

Calata accuses Mbeki of interference

Lukhanyo Calata, son of Fort Calata, has accused Mbeki and Jacob Zuma of political interference in post-TRC matters.

Mbeki broadcasts from Lusaka

When Mbeki, then forty-three, broadcast the speech, he was director of the ANC's Department of Information and Publicity, broadcasting underground from Lusaka in Zambia.

Mbeki names the fallen activists

Mbeki began his broadcast: Compatriots, tomorrow at Cradock in the Eastern Cape we shall be burying our leaders.

“Compatriots, tomorrow at Cradock in the Eastern Cape we shall be burying our leaders.”

Mbeki accuses government leaders

Mbeki charged then deputy minister Louis Nel and his seniors PW Botha, Magnus Malan, Pik Botha and Louis Le Grange with murder.

“We charge Louis Nel and his seniors, PW Botha, Magnus Malan, Pik Botha, Le Grange and others of murder.”

Mbeki's submission may address old wounds

The charges that Mbeki colluded with apartheid generals to shield them from prosecution must have stung deeply.