Disappearance of Cradock Four
FOUR friends and comrades – Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkhonto, Fort Calata and Sicelo Mhlauli – were assassinated by apartheid security police while travelling between Port Elizabeth and Cradock.
With Goniwe and Calata considered a thorn in the flesh of provincial apartheid authorities, a mission was set up to “permanently remove” the two former teachers whose political influence had rendered the town a political force to be reckoned with.
On June 27 1985, the four set off from Cradock to Port Elizabeth on a political mission.
Mhlauli, who was a childhood friend of Goniwe, was a principal in Oudtshoorn and visiting him for the holiday when he decided to tag along on the trip to catch up with his old friend.
Mkhonto was a railway worker and unionist who started leading the youth movement after being fired.
They held a host of political meetings, with the last one ending a little after 9pm and, because Goniwe felt he did not spend enough time with his family, they drove back that night and refused a friend’s invitation to spend the night.
That was the last time the Cradock Four were seen alive. They were abducted from the car in which they were travelling and assassinated.
A few days later their bodies were found burnt beyond recognition.
Mystery surrounded the deaths of the Cradock Four, with the two inquests opened into the murders going unsolved.