It’s about time the Highgate massacre was properly probed

The shooting of dozens of people at the Highgate pub in East London in May 1993 left five dead and several injured. It was a horrific massacre with gunmen opening fire with automatic weapons in a small indoor space. The shooting happened almost exactly a month after the cold-blooded assassination of Chris Hani at his home. As a result there was plenty of speculation that the socalled Highgate massacre was yet another attempt to throw the country into disarray on the eve of its first democratic elections.

But, the speculation was just that. No-one was held accountable.

The failure by the investigating authorities to find a single person responsible has been haunting for those who survived or lost loved ones.

Every year a dwindling number of survivors and their families would gather there to remind people that it had happened. To no avail.

Under pressure from the Foundation for Human Rights and the Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr law firm, the National Prosecuting Authority has announced it will hold an inquest into the killings.

It is three decades after the event and many who were there, or who investigated it, are now dead.

But, it is a welcome move. It is an acknowledgment that there needs to be a proper examination about what happened and why at that particularly sensitive time in our history.

An inquest is an inquiry during which evidence is examined, witnesses are interviewed and where the presiding judicial officer decides if anyone can be held responsible.

It can, by its nature, be limited in what it can uncover. But, if conducted with good will, a firm hand at the rudder and good lawyers, it can do much to expose what happened.

In the first inquest into the brutal killing of the Cradock Four activists in 1985, there was a clear cover-up.

The inquest concluded they had been killed by “unknown persons”.

It was of no use whatsoever in uncovering the truth. The inquest was reopened in 1993 and, with brilliant lawyers acting for the families of the Cradock Four and under the firm hand of then Eastern Cape judge president Neville Zietsman, it turned into a thorough inquisitory examination.

That judge concluded that the security forces had undoubtedly been involved, but said he did not have enough facts to name individuals responsible.

That inquest at least exposed the festering sore of statesponsored violence and murder and there was more to come with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process.

But too many incidents slipped under the radar and the Highgate massacre was one of them.

Hopefully, this inquest will uncover some truths and won’t conclude as too many did in the 1980s with the dreaded words “no-one to blame”.

Too many incidents slipped under the radar and the Highgate massacre was one of them