Political murders that shocked the world

The Herald

08-05-2025

In the mid-1980s, SA — especially the Eastern Cape and what was then the Transvaal — was in absolute political chaos, and appalling atrocities were being committed as the country headed towards anarchy.
It was the beginning of the end of a tragic and bloody chapter of a racially and deeply divided nation.
The defiant former president of the apartheid government, PW Botha, had announced a partial state of emergency on July 20 1985 — and just before this, political activists in the Eastern Cape were targeted in the worst and most violent deadly crimes ever carried out by security police.
These included the now infamous abduction and cold-blooded murder of struggle heroes like the Pebco Three and Cradock Four, among many others.
These shocking killings would take place in the months preceding the state of emergency, which placed draconian restrictions on the media and which even led to The Herald editor at the time, Koos Viviers, appearing in the Grahamstown High Court on charges of having contravened these laws.
Readers recall blank spaces on the front page of The Herald at the time, in a silent protest at not being able to report on certain unfolding political and anti-apartheid protest events happening on the ground.
The partial state of emergency initially applied to 36 magisterial districts in the Eastern Cape and the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging area.
However, with continued resistance throughout the country, the Act was eventually enforced nationally in 1986.
On May 8 1985, three members of the Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation (Pebco) left their homes in Kwazakhele.
They included president Qaqawuli Godolozi, secretary Champion Galela and executive committee member Sipho Hashe.
The Pebco m embers were lured to the Port Elizabeth airport by security police on May 8 1985.
They were then beaten to death on a remote farm at Post Chalmers near Cradock.
Nothing was known of their fate until 1997 when former security police colonel Gideon Nieuwoudt confessed to involvement in their deaths.
After years of uncertainty for their families, the remains of the Pebco Three and two Cosas activists were found at Post Chalmers in 2007.
Seven weeks later on June 27, Sparrow Mkhonto, Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe and Sicelo Mhlauli, were detained by the security police outside Port Elizabeth.
Goniwe and Calata were rumoured to be on a secret police hit list for their active participation in the struggle against apartheid in the Cradock area.
The South African security forces murdered them and then disposed of their bodies by burning.
Today, four towers stand tall and proud on a hill overlooking the Lingelihle township.
In 2019, government leaders officially launched the Cradock Garden of Remembrance after a multimillion-rand refurbishment of the memorial complex.
At the time, Goniwe's widow, Nyameka, said the garden was long overdue.
'We as families even thought that it was not going to be done as the space was identified and left empty for years and ended up being vandalised.'
She said the garden had been established for a purpose and it should be used to create culture, history and distribute knowledge to South Africans.
'This site should be guiding us as the Cradock Four g uided the country before they were brutally murdered. This must be the light that stands on top of the mountain and sheds light for everyone,' Goniwe said.
— Additional reporting by Tembile Sgqolana and South African History Online
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