Apartheid security bosses called Goniwe ‘enemy of the state’, inquest hears
All he wanted was to send Matthew Goniwe back to teach in Cradock — a move ex-apartheid deputy education minister Sam de Beer thought might ease the unrest caused by resistance to white minority rule.
But only days later, Goniwe and his three friends were abducted, viciously beaten and burnt to death — their bodies dumped just outside Bluewater Bay in Gqeberha.
And now, 40 years later, Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sicelo Mhlauli and Sparrow Mkonto remain widely remembered as the Cradock Four, but those responsible for their killings have still not been brought to justice.
Testifying virtually at the third inquest into the 1985 murders in the Gqeberha High Court on Monday, the 81-year-old said he and other cabinet ministers had supported Goniwe’s return to his teaching post to quell tensions in the small town of Cradock, now known as Nxuba.
Security forces, however, blocked the plan, branding the mathematics and science teacher an “enemy of the state”, De Beer said.
Between 1984 and 1989, De Beer served as deputy minister for education and development aid.
In 1991, he was appointed as education and training minister, a portfolio that included oversight of the Bantu education system.
De Beer said he believed reinstating Goniwe, who had been teaching at Sam Xhallie Secondary School, would bring about peace.
Goniwe, who was 38 at time of his death, later became the school’s headmaster.
In October 1983, the police’s security branch ordered the education department to transfer Goniwe out of Nxuba to Graaff-Reinet, aiming to curb his influence.
De Beer said Goniwe had been at the centre of organising local resistance in the 1980s, campaigning for educational reforms and leading community initiatives — actions that made him a target for apartheid authorities.
He also recalled convening meetings with senior ministers and the police commissioner to try to ensure Goniwe’s return.
According to De Beer, the plan was agreed upon only a week or two before the four men were abducted and killed.
Their murders, he said, came as a “complete shock” because he had believed the decision would calm tensions rather than inflame them.
“My appointment as deputy minister in 1984 coincided with a period of heightened political unrest in the Republic of SA, particularly within the education sector,” De Beer told the court.
“I was tasked with overseeing matters relating to Black education, which at the time had become a central point of resistance against the apartheid government.
“During this period, widespread school boycotts occurred across the country. These boycotts were driven by, among other things, inadequate facilities, authoritarian disciplinary practices, language policies, and broader opposition to the apartheid regime.
“These protests became increasingly politicised and Cradock became a vocal point of nationwide unrest during the 1980s.
“At the centre of the movement in Cradock was Mr Goniwe, a respected mathematics teacher at the local school and prominent community leader who played a pivotal role in organising local resistance, advocating for educational reform, and promoting community self-determination in the face of apartheid.”
De Beer said he convened an informal meeting in Pretoria with the then-minister of law and order, Louis le Grange, defence minister General Magnus Malan, education and training minister Gerrit Viljoen, and police commissioner General Johan Velde van der Merwe.
“During this meeting, all persons present agreed Mr Goniwe should be reinstated in his post in Cradock … I am not sure of the dates of these meetings, but as far as I can remember, it was a week or two before the killings of the Cradock Four.”
He said he never met Goniwe in person.
Craig Williamson, a former member of the Security Council, which reportedly authorised assassinations, is expected to testify on Tuesday.
Last week, the inquest heard that former Vlakplaas commander Eugene de Kock, widely known as “Prime Evil”, was hospitalised for suspected heart failure.
De Kock, who had been scheduled to testify, previously gave evidence to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Lawyers representing some former apartheid security officials requested proceedings be delayed until he could appear. Judge Thami Beshe, however, ruled the inquest should continue without him for now.
De Kock was sentenced to two life terms plus 212 years in prison for his role as head of the apartheid-era police death squad C10, responsible for numerous murders, kidnappings and other crimes against anti-apartheid activists.
After serving around 20 years, he was granted parole in 2015.
On Tuesday last week, UDF leader Bantu Holomisa testified about the so-called “Signal”, a document allegedly directing the permanent removal of the Cradock Four.
Holomisa identified high-ranking security officials as involved in orchestrating the murders and said that while he did not allege then-President FW de Klerk personally ordered the killings, as head of state he bore ultimate responsibility for the apartheid state and its security forces.
Senior Hawks investigator Colonel Mthetheleli Dweba also gave evidence, detailing the difficulties of reconstructing the case.
In 2021, he was tasked with rebuilding the murder docket after many original documents went missing.
Some suspects were already dead, while others, including Niel Barnard, ex-head of the National Intelligence Service, and Barend du Plessis, then-minister of black education, allegedly refused to cooperate.
Dweba said he had to trace witnesses and officials decades after the killings.
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