'I did not plan or kill the Cradock Four' — Former apartheid agent Craig Williamson
“I wish to emphatically deny that I had any involvement in the planning or killing of the Cradock Four … the allegations are nonsense,” Craig Williamson told the Gqeberha High Court on Tuesday.
Williamson is a former apartheid-era spy who spent decades living under the guise of an anti-apartheid activist.
He was later exposed as a double agent working for the then-SA Security Branch.
His covert operations spanned continents, involving infiltration of banned organisations like the ANC and the SA Communist Party (SACP) and orchestrating acts of state-sponsored terrorism, including overseas bombings and assassinations.
The Cradock Four — Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sicelo Mhlauli, and Sparrow Mkonto — were anti-apartheid activists abducted in June 1985 after attending a United Democratic Front (UDF) meeting in Gqeberha.
They never returned home to Cradock, now known as Nxuba.
Their bodies were later found near Bluewater Bay, tortured and burnt.
Williamson, who infiltrated anti-apartheid groups in SA and abroad during the 1970s and 1980s, told the court that his work had been focused on operations outside the country.
He denied involvement in actions inside SA that led to the deaths of activists.
He said he had infiltrated the ANC and the SACP, but that senior ANC leaders eventually uncovered his true identity.
Adv Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC, representing the families, asked Williamson if he had instructed intelligence officer Jacob van Jaarsveld in 1984 to observe Goniwe’s home for a potential assassination.
Williamson denied this.
Van Jaarsveld was previously granted amnesty for conspiring to murder Goniwe.
Van Jaarsveld had previously told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that he had been tasked with assessing whether Goniwe could be targeted and later received amnesty for his role.
Ngcukaitobi then argued with Williamson’s lawyer, Jaap Cilliers SC, over whether some of his questions were relevant.
He also accused Cilliers of showing disrespect to black advocates and suggested he might be in contempt of court.
Williamson confirmed that while working overseas in the 1970s, he passed intelligence to his superiors that helped monitor Steve Biko, who died in police custody in 1977, as well as other activists.
He mentioned his overseas work included operations that led to the deaths of Jeanette Schoon, her young daughter and Ruth First.
Schoon was an anti-apartheid activist who, along with her six-year-old daughter Katryn, was killed by a letter bomb in June 1984 in an operation carried out by the Security Branch of the apartheid police.
First was a journalist and anti-apartheid activist who was assassinated by a letter bomb in Maputo, Mozambique, in August 1982.
Williamson said he had only applied for and received amnesty for operations outside SA.
A letter bomb is a type of explosive device hidden inside an envelope or package, designed to detonate when opened or tampered with. It is intended to injure or kill the recipient.
During apartheid in SA, the Security Branch of the police used letter bombs as a method to target anti-apartheid activists living in exile.
During cross-examination, Williamson said some killings inside SA, including those of the Cradock Four, were carried out by others in the security forces and were not part of formal state planning.
Williamson said the role of the State Security Council, which he led, was to neutralize those considered enemies of the state.
“It wasn’t difficult to identify what has been called ‘enemies’ because these were people who were active in various revolutionary movements.”
Neutralize, Williamson said, meant killing them.
Ngcukaitobi also challenged the honesty of his testimony.
The inquest continues on Wednesday.
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