Three elderly former apartheid-era officials testified at the third inquest into the 1985 murders of the Cradock Four, vehemently denying any role in the killings. The inquest, held in Gqeberha, revisits the brutal deaths of anti-apartheid activists Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sicelo Mhlauli, and Sparrow Mkonto. Families continue seeking justice decades after the apartheid police hit squad carried out the attack.
On 27 June 1985, the Cradock Four—anti-apartheid activists Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkonto, Sicelo Mhlauli, and Fort Calata—were stopped at a roadblock while returning from Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) to Cradock in the Eastern Cape. Security Branch police assaulted them with steel pipes and knives, shot them, and burned their bodies and car with petrol. This apartheid-era hit squad killing prompted two prior inquests in 1987 and 1993, which found no specific individuals guilty but confirmed police involvement in the latter.
In 1999, six former policemen testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission but withheld full details and orders, denying them amnesty. Key figure Eric Taylor admitted killing Fort Calata by striking his head and stabbing him but refused to name superiors; he died in 2016 without trial. A notorious State Security Council signal, chaired by then-Minister of Law and Order Adriaan Vlok, called for the activists to be 'permanently removed from society' as a matter of urgency. In a 2021 interview, Vlok admitted that such phrasing likely implied killing if other measures failed, though he claimed no direct authority to order deaths. Vlok died in 2023.
The third inquest, with 9,000 pages of records, began recently in Gqeberha before Judge Nomathamsanqa Beshe (also referred to as Thami Beshe). On 23 October 2025, journalist and witness (field producer for a 2021 Al Jazeera documentary) testified about the Vlok interview, emphasizing political responsibility. Three former officials also testified, denying involvement amid claims of lies and memory lapses.
Lieutenant General Christoffel 'Joffel' van der Westhuizen (83) denied the 1993 inquest's implication via the signal, saying he only provided Goniwe's name for an education briefing and unaware of lethal intent. Major General Gerrit Erasmus (89), former Port Elizabeth Security Branch commander, claimed no collaboration with Lieutenant Jaap van Jaarsveld, a alleged mastermind, and cited memory failure. Major General Izak 'Krappies' Engelbrecht (85) rejected accusations from Eugene de Kock of destroying traffic fine evidence linking perpetrators, calling them 'nonsense and lies.'
Advocate Howard Varney, representing the families, cross-examined the witnesses. The original murder docket has gone missing from the National Prosecuting Authority, highlighting ongoing accountability issues. Families, including Lukhanyo Calata (son of Fort), pursue closure, arguing that unresolved apartheid crimes undermine present justice amid missing dockets in modern cases.