The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Monday started exhuming remains of eight Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) cadres who were killed in the apartheid era between the years 1984 and 1986 and buried as unidentified paupers at Mmabatho cemetery in the North West province.
The remains are believed to be those of: Andile Mrumshe (MK Limbo Tshabalala) from Cape Town; Thembisile Mkhalipi (MK Jackson Modise) from Cape Town; Motlalekhotso Sello (MK Unthathile Lethoko) from Matatiele; Peter Johnson (MK Tom Livingstone Gaza); Karabo Madiba (MK Gabriel Seatlholo); and two other unidentified persons.
Johnson and Madiba died on October 26 1984 outside Mafikeng. They had entered the country with another MK operative, Mikkie Xhayiya.
Police obtained information that they had arrived in Mafikeng and launched a search. Police claimed that one was shot dead while the other committed suicide. Xhayiya survived and was sentenced to imprisonment on Robben Island. He is now an executive at Mvelaphanda Holdings.
Mrumushe, Mkhaliphi and Sello died during an alleged shootout at a police roadblock between Makgobistat and Mafikeng on May 21 1986. They were part of a group entering the country from Botswana.
Two other cadres were killed on 3 January 1986 in an armed confrontation security forces at Seweding village near Mafikeng.
Another MK cadre was killed around January 1985. Not much information is available on this deceased.
These exhumations are being done in partnership with local experts and the Argentine Forensic Anthropology team. There is now an emphasis on skills sharing and training, with the goal of building a network of expertise that can serve the African continent.
Where necessary, DNA tests will be done by the Human Identification Laboratory in the Biochemistry Department at the University of the Western Cape (UWC).
This round of exhumations will bring to 35 the number of remains that have been exhumed since the process was launched by NPA head Vusi Pikoli last year. Thirteen have been positively identified and five of them have already been handed over to their families.
The NPA undertook the process following an instruction by President Thabo Mbeki in April 2003 for the NPA to finalise cases of missing persons that arose out of the TRC process.
The cases involve people who went missing and are presumed dead between the years 1960 and 1994. Cases referred to the NPA total 477. — I-Net Bridge