CAPE TOWN - The son of Cradock Four martyr Fort Calata, Lukhanyo Calata, says they have been caught by surprise and left “deeply disgusted” by the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) failure to announce whether the state would prosecute those behind the murders of his father and his comrades Sicelo Mhlauli, Sparrow Mkhonto and Matthew Goniwe.
The State Attorney, in a letter to the families’ legal representatives dated November 9, stated that national director of public prosecution, advocate Shamiela Batohi, undertook to make a decision whether or not to prosecute no later than December 2, said the Calata foundation.
Justice Minister Ronald Lamola had also told the inaugural Fort Calata memorial lecture in Cradock, Eastern Cape, on November 5 that a judge would be appointed to look into why the Cradock Four murders and that of many other anti-apartheid icons were not prosecuted.
However, his spokesperson, Chrispin Phiri, told the Cape Times yesterday that Lambola will discuss the issue when he leads a delegation to Parliament this week, while Batohi’s spokesperson Mthunzi Mhaga did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.
After no word from her office, the aggrieved families said they were prepared to proceed with their legitimation to force the State to make a decision and will have to file its answering papers to the families’ original application by December 13.
“We’re quite surprised by this latest failure. Remember, the NPA had made the undertaking to give us a decision before Judge Ledwaba. So the fact that they didn’t and without any explanation at all says a lot about their lack of respect for the judge and us the families, as well as their commitment to justice.
“This latest delay comes just weeks after the death of former apartheid president FW De Klerk. The NPA had failed to charge him despite his clear links to the Cradock Four murders. There’s no doubt now that Batohi and the NPA are stalling for time, hoping that other suspects such as Adriaan Vlok, Joffel an der Westhuizen, Barend du Plessis and Craig Williamson also die before they’re prosecuted for their roles in the murders of my father and his comrades, but we won’t allow that,” said the Calata Foundation.
The four were coming from a meeting of the United Democratic Front in Port Elizabeth when they were intercepted at a police roadblock in 1985 before being abducted, tortured and their bodies later burnt.
While the bodies of Mhlauli and Mkonto were found soon afterwards near Port Elizabeth, Goniwe and Calata’s bodies were only found days later in sea scrub bushland near Bluewater Bay, some 230km from Cradock.
While the families believe De Klerk had a role in the murders, his foundation on Friday, a day after the NPA was expected to announce its decision, said charges that De Klerk participated in State Security Council (SSC) decisions to kill activists were fabricated.
“They are simply untrue. De Klerk was never part of PW Botha’s securocrat inner circle – and was not even a permanent member of the SSC. In his autobiography, Niel Barnard (former National Intelligence head) refers disapprovingly to De Klerk’s impatience and reluctant involvement in SSC meetings – and likened him to a schoolboy in church who would rather be outside playing.
“If there had been any evidence that De Klerk was involved in gross violations of human rights, the TRC – with all its investigators, with its clear intent, and with full access to SSC documentation – would certainly have made such a finding,” said FW de Klerk Foundation chairperson Dave Steward.
He said De Klerk did not deny responsibility for the actions of his government, but he could not accept responsibility for actions by “rogue security force” elements that were in direct contravention of his orders, aimed at derailing the negotiations and at undermining his presidency.
He claimed that De Klerk’s critics wanted and needed him to be guilty of some or other gross violation of human rights.
“Despite all this, De Klerk’s legacy will survive. His epitaph should, perhaps, be the following extract from his speech last year to the Cape Town Press: ‘None of us can determine the nature of the worlds into which we are born or the injustices that we inherit from the past. All that we can do is to wrestle with the political forces of our time and try to leave the world a freer, a more just and a better place than we found it’.”
Cape Times