11 November 2008

NELSON Mandela Bay is to erect a R2-million memorial to four anti-apartheid activists who were murdered by the security police in 1985.

Anti-apartheid activists Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli, Sparrow Mkhonto and Fort Calata, were abducted by the security police on 27 June 1985 while returning to Cradock from a United Democratic Front meeting in Port Elizabeth.

They were brutally assaulted, tortured and then killed, their bodies and the vehicle in which they were travelling burnt. They became known as the Cradock Four.

In 1998, seven former security branch policemen applied for amnesty in connection with the murder. Only one of the applicants was granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The memorial would “include a main area where four pillars will each represent one of the slain men. There will also be a parking area, ablution facilities and an area where informal traders can sell their wares”, according to a statement by the municipality.

On Tuesday November 11, the widows of the Cradock Four; Nyameka Goniwe, Nomonde Calata, Nombuyiselo Mhlauli and Sindiswa Mkonto, visited the site where the memorial will be erected.

The widows “expressed their gratitude to the municipality for erecting a memorial to honour their husbands who died for what they believed in”, said the municipality.

A Garden of Remembrance, in memory of the four, was opened in Cradock in 2007.

Construction of the memorial is expected to start in March 2009.

Source: BuaNews
www.buanews.gov.za