South Africa launches new investigation into apartheid murders, called cradock IV

Johannesburg (AP) – When Nombuyiselo Mhlauli was sent back to her husband’s body for burial, he had more than 25 stabs in his chest, seven stabs in his back and a gash on his throat. His right hand was missing.

Sicelo Mhlauli was one of four black men kidnapped, tortured and killed by security forces in South Africa this month. No one is responsible for death.

But a new investigation led by a judge into the killing of anti-apartheid activists is known as the cradock four and has become a cry of the rally for those who were denied justice this month.

It was part of a re-push of the relatives of thousands of people killed by police and others in the years that white minority ruled and enforced segregation.

Mhlauli described her husband’s physical condition at the beginning of the inquiry at Gqeberha, where four people in the cradle were kidnapped in June 1985. Relatives of the other three men also testified.

Thumani Calata never knew her father, formerly the teacher’s father, Calata Castle. She was born two weeks after her funeral at Cradle Four, causing a large crowd and an uplifting resistance to segregation.

“I don’t know how it feels, and I will never know how my father hugged,” Thumani Calata, 39, told the investigation as she cried.

Two previous inquiries were conducted during apartheid. A two-year investigation that began in 1987 found that the men were killed by unknown people. In 1993, another said they were killed by unnamed police.

Since then, the implicated police have died

Relatives of the cradle may never see justice. Six former police officers were directly involved in kidnapping and killing, the last in 2023.

The committee formed by then-President Nelson Mandela tried to face the atrocities of apartheid in the years when the system officially ended in 1994. While some killers received amnesty, they rejected more than 5,000 applications and recommended criminal investigations.

There are almost no courts.

Oscar van Heerden, a political analyst at the University of Johannesburg, said that in four Cradock’s investigations, relatives’ pain showed that the wound was not healed.

“In places where the truth feels that there is no speech and there is not enough evidence to forgive, these cases should have been formally prosecuted, and prosecution and justice should prevail,” Van Heerden said. “None of this happened.”

Take the government to the court

The government failed for 25 years after apartheid and is currently under review. Frustratingly, the family of the cradle eventually forced authorities to rule last year that a new investigation into the killing would be conducted.

They also joined a group of relatives of other apartheid-era victims to send the South African government to court for failing to investigate so many crimes.

As part of the settlement in the case, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered a national investigation led by a retired judge to understand why the apartheid killer was not brought to justice. The survey, which has not been opened, could be exposed to further uncomfortable moments in South Africa.

Most victims of political violence during apartheid were black and other people of color, but some were white, and families had crossed races. In 1993, a group of survivors and relatives at Highgate Hotel Massacre opened fire in a bar filled with white clients, joining the fire with four Cradock families and other cases targeting the government.

They claimed that authorities deliberately blocked the investigation after apartheid.

Other inquiries have reopened, including the death of Albert Luthuli in 1967, the president of the banned anti-apartheid African National Assembly movement. Luthuli’s death has been suspected for more than 50 years.

The last chance to know the truth

Among Cradock’s four inquiries, more testimony is expected to be resumed in October, with Howard Varney, a family lawyer, saying it was their last chance to get the truth.

From the day when police officers were blocked at night to the day their bodies were found, burned and showed signs of torture, new inquiry attempted to trace the murder. The families also hope that a former military commander and former police officer might be aware of the murder to testify.

Calata Castle’s son Lukhanyo Calata said he accepted the deaths of his father and his friends Mhlauli, Matthew Goniwe and Sparrow Mkonto. But he said he hopes the official record ends up showing who killed them.

“Justice can only come in the form of truth now,” Lukhanyo Calata told the Associated Press. “They may not be prosecuted, they may not be convicted, but according to court records, this is the truth about the murders surrounding Cradle Four.”

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