Legal wrangles over inquests into the deaths of two prominent political figures have prompted fears that officials are trying to avoid Biko-style, high-profile hearings in which the police come under close scrutiny.
Magistrates have tried to turn the two inquests – into the deaths in 1985 of Durbancivil rights lawyer Victoria Mxenge and East Cape community leader Matthew Goniwe – into informal hearings. This would mean that no witnesses would be called and cross-examined. In an informal inquiry the magistrate simply reads the affidavits presented to him and reaches a decision based on the papers alone. The deaths of both activists occured under extremely mysterious circumstances, prompting fears of the existence of Argentinian-style assassination squads. No arrests have been made in either case.
Allegations of official subterfuge – Dr Allan Boesak publicly blamed the police for Goniwe's death – have fanned the demand for full hearings. Informal inquests are usually held only in cases where no foul play is suspected, like suicides. The issue is already being tested in another case: the inquest of camera- man George De'Arth, who was killed while filming Crossroads vigilantes in 1986. The magistrate's decision to hold at informal hearing is being challenged by lawyers acting for the family in the Cape Town Supreme Court next month. Mxenge was gunned down outside her Umlazi home in 1985.
This week lawyers acting for her family went to court for the start of the inquest into her death – but the magistrate said he planned to hold only an informal inquest. After discussion, the case was postponed to February 22 to allow further affidavits to be filed and on that date the magistrate will decide whether to hold an informal hearing, or whether to agree to aformal inquest. A family representative said they were concerned that this could be a sign of a new trend in which formal inquests would not be held following deaths of opposition figures. The Mxenge family have experience of inquests: Mxenge's husband Griffiths, also a civil rights lawyer was killed on November 20 1981. The inquest into his death took several months, with a number of long adjournments.
Lawyers representing the family were able to cross-examine the police at length on their investigation into his death and their actions after discovering the body. The family are concerned that they will be denied this kind of opportunity should a formal inquest not be held. The magistrate says the state and the family are agreed that Mxenge was killed by unknown persons. He says there is therefore no need for a formal inquest which would involve additional expense and timeand which would come to the same conclusion as an informal inquiry. This leaves the family lawyers with the task of submitting additional affidavits which might persuade the magistrate that there are good grounds for changing his mind and holding a formal inquest. Their task is made more difficult by the fact that eyewitness Mcebisi Xundu, the Anglican priest who dropped Mxenge at her house before she was shot, cannot identify the attackers.
Matthew Goniwe, a United Democratic Front organiser, was last seen leaving a UDF briefing in Port Elizabeth on June 27 1985. He had phoned his wife in Cradock to say he was on his way home and would stop for no-one but a uniformed policeman. Over the next few days, the charred and mutilated bodies of Goniwe and his three passengers and UDF colleagues were found outside Port Elizabeth. As an informal hearing, Tuesday's inquest into the murders seems unlikely to provide new answers to the questions raised by the deaths of the Cradock leaders who organised the country's longest-ever school boycott and turned Lingelihle township into a model of organised resistance.
Only two of the families of the-deceased men – Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparro Mkonto and Sicelo Mlauli – were told of the January 4 inquests. And those families who were informed were notified late: Goniwe's elder brother, Alex Goniwe, said the letters were posted on December 22 but only arrived on December 28. "The offices of our lawyers were closed and I had to phone Cape Town and all over, looking for someone to help us." Magistrate EL de Rock granted a postponement till January 26. But he said unless the families could provide new evidence about who was responsible for the murders, he would hold an informal inquest. This could mean the families of the dead men andthe public will never know to what lengths the police went to investigate the murders.
Mkonto's body was found on Friday night June 28 1985, a day after the men went missing, one kilometre away from Goniwe's burnt-out car. The following day, Mlauli's body was found. Police said a fisherman who did not wish to be named had informed them of a body in the bush. The police at first denied that they were searching for Calata and Goniwe, stating that their families had not reported them missing. But on July 2 1985 the East Cape Murder and Robbery Squad invited local reporters photographers to accompany and 35 South African Defence Force members on a search of the area where Mhlauli and Mkonto's bodies had been found, as part of their investigations in the murders.
An hour after the search began the bodies of Goniwe and Calata were found in a small clearing. Independent forensic consultants, appointed by the relatives, found that there was no damage to suggest Goniwe's car had been forced off the road. He also examined two sites where the bodies were found and concluded the four were alive when they were taken from the car. – Jo-Ann Bekker and Carmel Rickard
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
