Families demand justice
Children of Haron, Biko, Calata and others resolute over victims of apartheid police
THE FAMILIES of anti-apartheid activists killed in detention during apartheid have pooled their resources and are collectively calling on the government to reopen the inquests into their deaths.
At the launch of the Imam Haron Foundation, attended by among others, ANC deputy secretary-general Jesse Duarte, family members asked her to intervene on their behalf.
The foundation will also be responsible for the commemoration events expected to take place in Cape Town between May 28 – the day Haron was arrested – and September 27, when he died.
His youngest daughter, Fatima Haron-Masoet, said: “My father died battered and bruised. His death was as a result of police torture.”
Nkosinathi Biko, eldest son of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, also attended the event.
“My father was detained in 1968, we didn’t know where he was. When we buried my father we wanted to know what happened to him.
“We took part in the Truth and Reconciliation commission in 1996. We thought we would get closure but we didn’t,” he said.
Steve Biko died in a prison cell in Pretoria. The announcement of his death by the government the next day sparked widespread protests.
Author and journalist Lukhanyo Calata, whose father, Fort Calata, died 35-years ago, was also present. He called the current government “cowards”.
“I don’t know how the ANC expects us to continue to fight. We are left without any truth or any justice. We are sitting 25 years into a democracy and we are still sitting without justice,” Calata said.
Fort Calata was murdered by agents of the apartheid state in 1985 when his son was 3years old.
Lukhanyo, now a journalist, became one of the SABC Eight when he defied Hlaudi Motsoeneng’s reign of censorship at the public broadcaster in an open letter that declared: “My father didn’t die for this.”
“Not a single one of us sitting here are sitting with justice.
“If we are going to build a society where there is no accountability, then we are doomed.
“That’s why we see the looting and number of issues coming out at these inquiries. This is all because we have built a society without any accountability,” he said.
He pleaded with Duarte to assist. Duarte said: “I am in full support of them and working hard within the ANC to get justice for these activists.”