The African National Congress, ANC, said it’s in the interest of justice to ensure all those who misled or failed to get amnesty at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for apartheid-era crimes face the consequences of their actions.
This as it welcomes the announcement of an inquest into the killings of anti-apartheid activists known as the Cradock Four.
On Friday, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola announced that he’s directed the Eastern Cape judge president to appoint a presiding officer to look into the circumstance surrounding the four’s deaths.
Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkonto, Fort Calata and Sicelo Mhlauli were abducted and killed, allegedly by apartheid government assassins in 1985.
The four were on their way home to Cradock following a meeting in June 1985. They never made it back home, instead they were abducted with their bodies discovered days later burnt and with several stab wounds.
The ANC said it supports the rationale behind re-opening the inquest into the activists’ deaths.
In its statement welcoming the development, the party said the TRC itself noted that the truth has always been there but simply hidden from the public gaze.
It also said it’s clear from recent cases that the decision to look back at apartheid era crimes was bearing fruit, with recent cases such as the deaths of Dr Neil Aggett, Enerst Dipale, Dr Hoosen Haffejee and Imam Haron showing police involvement in their deaths, some of which the apartheid government had previously been labelled as suicides.
