Cradock Four inquest resumes in Gqeberha nearly 40 years after apartheid-era killings
Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkonto, Fort Calata and Sicelo Mhlauli who were known as the ’Cradock Four’ lie in this grave. The four men were killed by state security forces in 1985.
Image: Benny Gool / Independent Media
The inquest into the deaths of the Cradock Four will resume in the Gqeberha High Court on Monday, almost four decades after the killings that became one of apartheid’s darkest chapters.
The four men -Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli, and Sparrow Mkonto - were Eastern Cape activists who fought against apartheid rule.
They were abducted, assaulted, and murdered by members of the apartheid security police outside Gqeberha in June 1985.
Their burnt bodies were later discovered.
The case became widely known as the “Cradock Four” murders because all four men were active in the small town of Cradock, where they organised civic structures and school boycotts under the banner of the United Democratic Front.
Cradock is now known as Nxuba.
Their work made them targets of the security branch, which viewed their activism as a threat to the apartheid government.
A formal inquest found in 1989 that the men died at the hands of “unknown persons", despite widespread belief that members of the security police were involved.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) later confirmed the killings were carried out by the security branch, but none of the perpetrators were ever prosecuted.
The current inquest, which began earlier in 2025, was reopened by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) following pressure from families and human rights groups who have long called for justice.
The proceedings aim to determine whether anyone still alive can be held legally responsible for the deaths.
During the first sitting, family members and former police officers testified, and evidence from TRC hearings was reviewed.
The inquest forms part of the NPA’s wider effort to revisit unresolved apartheid-era cases where accountability was never achieved.
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