Cradock Four: Fort Calata’s wife recalls dream prompting her to visit place where his body was found

GQEBERHA - The wife of Fort Calata, one of the Cradock Four activists, has recalled how she was haunted by a dream after his murder, prompting her to visit the place where his body was found.

She relayed the story during an in loco inspection as part of an inquest into the deaths of the activists.

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The court has been visiting significant locations linked to the lives and the assassinations of Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli, and Sparrow Mkhonto.

The four were abducted by apartheid special branch police in June 1985 while they were travelling from what was then Port Elizabeth to Cradock.

Their burned bodies were later found scattered around the city.

Judge Thami Beshe has spent her time presiding over the Cradock Four inquest not in a courtroom, but in an open veld, near dunes and on the beach.

Standing on a pavement metres away from the Bluewater Bay beach, Calata’s wife, Nomonde, recalled coming here to perform a ritual to repatriate his spirit, 30 years after his passing.

"I had a dream that was haunting me. Fort was telling me that he wants to come home. Eventually, I found Mbulelo and he said he is going to consult and then he said we must go to collect the spirit."

But this location has been disputed by Mhlauli’s brother-in-law, Gcobani Zonke, who claims he found Calata and Goniwe’s charred bodies on another side of town.

Zonke claims it was the apartheid government that moved the bodies of the Cradock Four and scattered them across the city.