Johannesburg - Poisoned, tortured, shot, burnt and bombed - this was how Selby Vuyani Mavuso, Sizwe Kondile and Johannes Sweet Sambo died at the hands of apartheid police.
The families of the three men achieved a measure of closure as they attended a “spiritual repatriation” and symbolic burial at Freedom Park in Pretoria on Friday.
They were joined by the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Michael Masutha, and the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Shaun Abrahams, and one of his predecessors, Vusi Pikoli, who had been Kondile's best friend.
On Thursday, the families attended a spiritual repatriation in Komatipoort, Mpumalanga.
The symbolic burial took place at Isivivane in Freedom Park, which can best be described as a spiritual resting place for those who played a part in the Struggle.
“We are alive to the fact that there should have been real burials, but the ruthless and merciless apartheid regime had no respect for human life, especially our freedom fighters,” Masutha said.
Kondile, who was 23 at the time of his death, fled to Lesotho with Pikoli, and joined the ANC in exile.
In 1981, he was abducted in Maseru by security police and taken to the Eastern Cape. He endured protracted interrogation and torture at the hands of the Eastern Cape security police before being killed.
The security police told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that while his body burned for nine hours, they sat near it and had a braai.
Mavuso was 27 when he was murdered in a similar fashion. He, too, was in exile when he was abducted in 1981 by members of the South African Defence Force during the Matola Raid in Maputo and brought back.
He was detained for months, and it was then decided he should be killed. He was drugged or poisoned and shot. His body was burned on a fire near the Komati River in Komatipoort. His ashes were then put in the river.
Sambo, 30, was from Komatipoort and was an underground ANC operative. He was detained at his home in 1991 by members of the Lebombo security police and died during interrogation in which violence was used.
The security police asked Vlakplaas, headquarters of the South African Police counterinsurgency unit, for help in disposing of Sambo’s body.
Eugene de Kock, commander of Vlakplaas, assigned three of his unit members to this task. The trio took Sambo’s body to Limpopo. Explosives were used repeatedly to blow it up until nothing remained.
The National Prosecuting Authority’s missing person’s task team determined no remains could be recovered.
Referring to the ceremony, Masutha said: “I think it’s a moment of reflection for all of us across political persuasions, religious and cultural persuasions and racial divides in South Africa.”
The Department of Justice hoped to approach Parliament with a concrete proposal to criminalise racism, with jail time as a penalty, Masutha said.
Mavuso’s niece, Punkies Mavuso-Masuku, said the ceremony afforded her family much-needed closure.
“Participating in the rituals gave us answers, closure and understanding of the whole situation.”
Commander Mncedisi Sikhuza of the Umkhonto we Sizwe Veterans Association carries the symbolic remains of Johannes Sambo, Selby Mavuso and Sizwe Kondile, who were killed by security police.
Saturday Star