Cradock Four Inquest First Session Has Concludes

(The Post News)- Wednesday testimonies marked the conclusion of the first section of the Cradock Four inquest at Gqeberha High Court.

Fort Calata, Mathew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlauli were killed by police in 1985, nearly forty years later their families are still in search of answers to their deaths.

Nyaniso Goninwe and Reverend Charl Coetzee were the last witnesses to give their testimonies, as the first section of the inquest came to conclusion, which began on 2nd of June.

Goniwe who was three years when his father was killed, narrated the implotional impact his father’s death had on his family particularly his mother and sister.

He told the court that his sister was triggered by a documentary of their father’s killing that had played on TV, which caused his sister to battle with emotions that she had supressed for years but those emotions later consumed her as she began to experience hallucinations and became a shell of who she used to be and was later diagnosed with clinical depression.

The court also heard that Reverend Charl Coetzee had once held a reconciliation meeting with former police lieutenent Eric Taylor, the meeting took place in April 1997, before his amnesty application.
Taylor in his TRC amnesty application had admitted his involvement in the murders of Cradock Four, his application was tuned down by TRC

Lawyers for the families of the victims questioned Coetzee about a statement that was made by Taylor in which he had said that the men had died with “dignity.”

However Howard Varney disputed this by pointing out that they had died a gruesome death with the autopsy revealing that the Cradock Four had been stabbed multiple times and they had been also shot.

The second session of the inquest is scheduled to resume on the 13 and 24 October.