Court shown locations where apartheid special branch police allegedly surveilled Cradock Four
The court went on an on-sight inspection on Tuesday, where Judge Thami Beshe was taken into the streets of Cradock and shown significant locations related to the lives and deaths of the activists.
Gqeberha High Court Judge Thami Beshe and court officials visited Cradock (officially Nxuba) for in-loco inspections into the reopened inquest into the apartheid-era deaths of the Cradock Four. Picture: Kayleen Morgan/Eyewitness News.
CRADOCK - The Gqeberha High Court has been shown the exact locations where apartheid special branch police allegedly surveilled the Cradock Four before abducting and assassinating them in 1985.
The court went on an on-site inspection on Tuesday, where Judge Thami Beshe was taken into the streets of Cradock and shown significant locations related to the lives and deaths of the activists.
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On Monday, the third inquest into the killings of Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto, and Sicelo Mhlauli was reopened.
There were no robes and leather chairs for Beshe and the lawyers involved in the Cradock Four inquiry as they were taken into the streets of the suburbs and the local township, Lingelihle.
Goniwe’s nephew, Mbulelo, narrated for the court how his family learned that special branch police would stand on a nearby hill and surveil the Goniwe home with binoculars.
"We procured our own binoculars and looked at this direction, then we saw the police special branch."
Mbulelo also told the court that they found recording devices at the local Lingelihle Hall, where the Cradock Four would lead African National Congress (ANC) meetings.
The family also believed that the landline phone in the Goniwe home was tapped, forcing the family to have private conversations only in the kitchen, which could be closed off to the rest of the home.