ANC to discuss pursuing killers of MK pair

PURSUING those who killed Coline Williams and Robert Waterwitchwill be discussed at the ANC’s provincial executive committee meeting this week.

Umkhonto we Sizwe guerrillas Williams and Waterwitch, both 20, died on Sunday, July 23, 1989 when a limpet mine exploded prematurely.

Williams and Waterwitch were on their way to plant the mine at the Athlone Magistrate’s Court, which was to be used in the elections for the tricameral parliament in September that year.

Their deaths were investigated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but a conclusive finding was not made.

This month the South African History Archive gained access to Section 29 hearings – hearings which were held in secret.

It has since emerged that there are people implicated in the deaths of Williams and Waterwitch.

The TRC found that security forces had agents in or very close to the Ashley Kriel unit, to which Williams and Waterwitch belonged.

On Saturday, speaking at an event to mark the 26th anniversary of their deaths, ANC PEC member Lionel Adendorf said he had the support of the party’s provincial secretary, Faiez Jacobs, to put a motion to the PEC to ask the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, Michael Masutha, as well as the National Prosecuting Authority to investigate who should be charged with Williams and Waterwitch’s deaths.

The event took place outside the Athlone police station, close to a memorial of the two.

Adendorf said the case had gone cold. “Is this really the best way we can repay those who have done so much for us and our freedom?

“Just like the Waterwitch and Williams families, even those who worked with them, studied with them, struggled with them and fought with them, deserve the truth,” Adendorf said.

Adendorf said the ruling party had worked hard to undo the damage done by colonialism and apartheid, but many still suffer under the “terrible burden of poverty, unemployment, violence, gangsterism, greed and corruption”.

He said some healing could come by emulating Williams and Waterwitch.

“We can honour them by returning to the values and principles they embodied and for which they sacrificed their lives.”