““History is never simply a chronicle of the past. It is always a challenge to contemporary thought for the future.” Archbishop Trevor Huddleston.

In 1998, the TRC denied amnesty to six police officers who were associated with the murder of the Cradock Four in conspiring to cover up their dreadful crime against humanity.

In 2003 their names were formally given to the National Prosecuting Authority as part of their recommendations. Bringing them to trial aught to have been a routine prosecution.

However, for twenty years the ANC Government has kept kicking that can down the road, to the point that apartheid government leaders who were implicated have died. Adriaan Volk died in January this year, and President FW de Klerk died two years ago. It was recently reported that the last of the six police officers who were denied amnesty and named by the TRC, Hermanus Barend du Plessis has recently died,

In response to that Lukhanyo Calata, wrote an open letter to his late father published on 27th June 2023. It is heartbreaking stuff.
https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/opinion...

Lukhanyo is the great grandson of Rev James Calata one of the luminaries of the ANC in its formative years. Lukhanyo lays the blame at the door of the ANC and its successive administrations for not doing what the TRC urged them to do, and as such betraying what Rev James Calata stood for, especially the line in the Freedom Charter that says "all are equal before the law".

Lukhanyo believes that we are no closer to that ideal today, than we were under the apartheid regime of PW Botha, because the ANC of today has allowed those responsible for the murder of his father and many other victims of apartheid brutality to die natural deaths without them ever being held accountable for the crimes that they committed.

He ends the letter with a deep concern that he is afraid and not sure what the future has in store for him and his family.

That goes for all of us who cherish the ideals that the Cradock Four stood for. It cant just be the families of the Cradock Four that must keep the flame of justice and truth alive.

I was deeply moved by that letter. Since I was driving from the Eastern Cape back home to Joburg, I would stop over in Cradock and pay his mother Nomonde Calata a visit.

We had a deeply soulful conversation, that was a great inspiration to me, and will inspire whistle blowers, journalists and everyone who speaks truth to power, to stand their ground.