The National Prosecuting Authority’s request to hold a joint inquest into the apartheid deaths of Sipho Samuel Hashe, Qaqawuli Godolozi and Twasile Champion Galela, known as the Pebco Three, has been approved by the justice minister.
The formal inquest will be held at the Gqeberha high court.
Hashe, Godolozi and Galela were leaders of the Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation (Pebco), which was affiliated to the United Democratic Front.
At the height of civil resistance against the apartheid government, the three left their homes on May 8 1985 to meet a prospective donor at the Hendrik Verwoerd Airport (now named Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport), never to be seen again.
Their fate remained unknown until November 1997.
During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings, former security branch (SB) policeman Col Gideon Niewoudt applied for amnesty.
During his testimony, he confessed to participating in the abduction, robbery, and murder of the Pebco Three.
He further revealed that he had paid a police informant to pose as a British embassy official to lure the three to a meeting that was to discuss a potential donation to their organisation.
When they arrived at the airport, they were abducted by members of the SB and taken to an abandoned police station near Cradock (now Nxuba), Post Chalmers, where they were interrogated, stripped, beaten, repeatedly suffocated, drugged, strangled, and burned on a diesel-soaked pyre while their killers enjoyed a braai nearby.
Some of the remains of the deceased were thrown into the nearby Fish River.
Ten more members of the SB applied for amnesty.
Amnesty was only granted to two applicants for conspiracy to commit murder, abduction, and assault.
Both have since died.
Niewoudt, Johannes Martin “Sakkie” van Zyl and Johannes Koole were indicted in the Gqeberha high court after the TRC hearings.
Due to interlocutory applications and the subsequent deaths of the three accused, the matter could not proceed.
No formal inquest was therefore held into the deaths of the Pebco Three.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) regional spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said it was therefore imperative that all the facts and evidence be properly ventilated before an inquest court for a judge to make any appropriate findings.
“The NPA and its partners will continue its efforts of addressing the atrocities of the past and assist in providing closure to the families of the victims of these crimes,” Tyali said.
The Herald
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