Justice eludes families of apartheid victims 30 years after truth commission

Thirty years after its inception, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's shortcomings have come to symbolize the struggle of families seeking justice for apartheid-era atrocities. In 1985, four anti-apartheid activists, Fort Calata, Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli, and Sparrow Mkonto, were brutally murdered on their way back from a meeting in Port Elizabeth. Their charred bodies, with Mhlauli's hand missing, were a chilling testament to the regime's viciousness.

The cradock four: apartheid's brutal toll

Despite the advent of democracy in 1994, the families have endured a decades-long fight for accountability, with successive governments failing to prosecute hundreds of cases referred to state prosecutors by the TRC. Accusations of a deal between apartheid generals and former Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma have further complicated the quest for justice.

A third inquest into the Cradock Four killings finally opened in June last year, after years of relentless pressure from the families. Their question remains unanswered: why were the killers not prosecuted decades earlier, despite being denied amnesty by the TRC?