Calata Foundation
The head of the SANDF's legal services, Masilo Lekoloana, is expected to appear in the high court in Gqeberha on Tuesday.
According to the Foundation for Human Rights, this is to account for the military's refusal to fund the legal costs of an apartheid era officer implicated in the murders of the so-called Cradock Four.
Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlauli were brutally killed in 1985, and several perpetrators had applied for, but were denied amnesty by the Truth Commission.
Following pressure from family members, the state reopened a third inquest into their murders.
However, the outstanding issue of the legal costs for the 83-year-old witness, former Lieutenant-General Stoffel van der Westhuizen, remains a stumbling block.
He is said to be in poor health, and the victims' families fear that unless he testifies soon, they may be denied the opportunity to hear from him.
Van der Westhuizen was the commanding officer of the Eastern Province Command and a member of the Joint Management Committee, a structure of the State Security Council (SSC) at the time of the murders.
He ordered the signal on 7 June 1985 to urgently “permanently remove” the Cradock 4 “from society, be sent to the head of the Secretariat of the SSC.
In 1994, the second inquest, under Judge Neville Zietsman, found that it had been established prima facie that the murderers were members of the security forces, and that a “a case of suspicion” has been made out against certain police and army officers, including Van der Westhuizen, who never applied for amnesty before the TRC.
Testimony from former state officials, including van der Westhuizen, is currently scheduled to proceed from 13 to 24 October 2025.
