Cradock Four

Matthew Goniwe was a teacher and popular community leader and organiser in Cradock. Goniwe was arrested in June 1976 in Mthatha and jailed for four years under the Suppression of Communism Act for being part of a Marxist reading group. He returned to Cradock in 1981 and became a teacher at Sam Xhallie Secondary School in 1983. He was also instrumental in the formation of the Cradock Residents' Association (CRADORA) and Cradock Youth Association (CRADOYA) in 1983. The organisations successfully managed to get the apartheid government to lower rents in Cradock in May 1983. Goniwe was also the rural organiser of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and was responsible for the formation of street committees (named the G-Plan) in Cradock, Adelaide, Kirkwood, Noupoort and Kenton-on-Sea. Fort Calata was a school teacher at Sam Xhallie Secondary School and a close political ally of Goniwe. In October 1980, he was detained in Dimbaza for three weeks for writing a letter to the municipality informing them about the dirty streets and the unhygienic bucket system. He was later transferred to Cradock where he, alongside Goniwe, formed both CRADORA and CRADOYA in 1983. Calata was also an active member of the United Democratic Front. Sicelo Mhlauli, a close friend of Goniwe, with whom he had grown up with in Cradock, was a school principal in Oudtshoorn. Mhlauli had begun his career as a teacher at Tembalabantu High School in Zwelitsha in the 1970. However, harassment by the Ciskei government drove him to Archie Velile School. He was arrested by the Ciskei government after taking school pupils to a hospital after they were wounded after a riot. Mhlauli relocated to Oudtshoorn, where he began teaching in 1982 until he became the principal. He was active in the Oudtshoorn Youth Organisation and a community newspaper- Saamstaan. Mhlauli also became an active member of the UDF and attended its launch in 1983. He survived an arson attack in which his office and personal belongings were destroyed that same year. Sparrow Mkonto was a railway worker who was instrumental in the formation of CRADORA and CRADOYA and the successful lowering of the rents in Cradock. Mkonto became a senior office-bearer of CRADORA. His involvement with CRADORA caused the Security Police to conspire with his employers at the railway to have him dismissed on a spurious charge. Note that the correct spelling is Mkonto (as appeared on his tombstone and his ID book, and NOT Mkhonto, as incorrectly spelt by journalists at the time of his death). ==Background==

In 1983, the Cradock Youth Association (CRADOYA) was launched with Goniwe being elected as its first chairperson and Fort Calata, as its secretary. The civil movement's first move was to fight against the unfair rental system being proposed by the East Cape Administration Board. In May 1983, Goniwe called a mass meeting to discuss how the community should respond to high rents, and the Cradock Residents’ Association (CRADORA) was formed. After applying sufficient pressure, CRADORA won the fight as rents were lowered. After the launch of the United Democratic Front (UDF) on 20 August 1983, CRADORA became affiliated to it. On 31 March 1984, at 10 o'clock in the evening the police arrested and detained Calata, Goniwe and his cousin Mbulelo Goniwe. Fezile Donald Madoda Jacobs, a headboy at Lingelihle High School and a COSAS and CRADOYA leader, had been detained two days before. On 31 March the Minister of Law and Order Louis le Grange banned all meetings for three months. CRADORA meanwhile had held several meetings with the DET and its regional director, Giinther Merbold, in an attempt to get Goniwe reinstated. A senior DET official, De Beer, declared the case "closed". After a community delegation to Cape Town, the DET decided to re-open the case and agreed to meet Goniwe in Cradock. Goniwe told them he wanted the school boycott to come to an end. CRADORA asked De Beer to help them get permission for a public meeting (there was a banning order for all meetings) on 29 March 1985, which De Beer did, and the meeting was held on Easter Monday. Goniwe said the children had to go back to school – after 15 months. ==Assassinations==

On 27 June 1985, Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli (known as the Cradock Four) left for Port Elizabeth at about 10am. Goniwe as the UDF rural organiser in the Karoo was going to Port Elizabeth for a weekly management meeting. The vehicle that the four activists were travelling in was spotted by the police at Cookhouse, around lunchtime. ==Inquests==

The South African government denied its involvement in the murder of the Cradock Four. However, by early June 1985, a copy of the secret military signal message form issuing their death warrant was anonymously sent to Transkei's Minister of Defence, Major-General Bantu Holomisa, who forwarded the document to Transkei's Director of Military Intelligence. The document proposed the permanent removal of Matthew Goniwe, Mbulelo Goniwe and Fort Calata from the community. • Matthews Goniwe - Inquest No. 626/87 • Sicelo Mhlauli - Inquest No. 627/87 • Sparrow Mkonto - Inquest No. 628/87 • Fort Calata - Inquest No. 629/87 At the end of the inquest on 22 February 1989, the magistrate found that the four had been killed by “unknown persons”. The second inquest began on 29 March 1993 and ran for 18 months in terms of the Inquests Amendment. Judge Neville Zietsman, in delivering his verdict, found that the security forces were responsible for their deaths, although no individual was named as responsible. ==Legacy==

In December 1999, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission denied amnesty for six security officers who were involved in the murders. The six were: former security branch head Harold Snyman, Eric Alexander Taylor, Gerhardus Johannes Lotz, Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg, Johan van Zyl and Hermanus Barend du Plessis. Colonel Snyman had given the orders. Former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock was the only one who was granted amnesty (for knowledge of the murders – he was not directly involved). In 2007, Rejoice Mabudafhasi, the Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, created the Cradock Four Garden of Remembrance and Vusubuntu Cultural village, located on the N10 highway between Cookhouse and Cradock. In 2010, the filmmaker David Forbes released a documentary about Matthew Goniwe. The Department of Justice denied Forbes freedom of information access to the TRC and inquest records, even though the records had been heard in open court. The filing requests under South Africa's Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 took two years before an out-of-court settlement confirmed by the High Court granted him access within 30 days. Forbes said later they should have pursued the case to ensure a High Court legal precedent that would have helped many others access records. Matthew Goniwe Residence (MGR) of Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in Bellville Campus (previously Pentech), is named after Matthew Goniwe. ==See also==