The bones exhumed from a paupers’ grave in Mamelodi West cemetery near Pretoria on Thursday could well be the remains of African National Congress (ANC) liberation fighter Looksmart Ngudle, who died four decades ago, said the exhumation team.
The head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) missing persons task team, Madeleine Fullard, said they had found three skeletons buried one on top of the other, the first two men and the third a woman.
This was consistent with the cemetery records that the NPA used to identify the unmarked grave among the thousands of paupers’ graves in the cemetery.
”It’s a good sign,” said Fullard.
The team believe the middle skeleton is that of Ngudle, who died in detention in Pretoria in September 1963. His family was told he had committed suicide.
For decades his death was regarded as the first recorded death in detention.
Fullard said the first skeleton, apparently of a man, was so fragmented it was almost indistinguishable from the soil and was intermingled with the second.
”The second skeleton is in better condition than the first.”
The third skeleton was not removed and the first will be reburied later.
”Tomorrow [Friday] we’ll try to clean the bones,” said forensic anthropologist Luis Fondebrider, the head of the Argentine forensic anthropology team which led the exhumation.
He said a preliminary assessment of whether the bones were consistent with what they are looking for would be possible within a day or two.
”The important thing is the age at the moment.”
If skeleton appears to be the correct age — Ngudle was 41 — then they will go ahead with DNA testing to confirm identity..
A unionist, Ngudle was also the Western Cape commander of the ANC’s armed wing Umkhonto weSizwe when he died in detention in September 1963.
Those who died in custody were usually buried in unmarked paupers’ graves.
Earlier, Ngudle’s family said they hoped the remains would be identified as those of Ngudle so they could bury him with family in Middledrift in the Eastern Cape.
”I feel happy but I pray to God that this work must be successful,” said Ngudle’s younger brother Zithobile Ngudle while watching the exhumation.
”We want him to rest in our family graveyard.”
Ngudle’s son, Siyanda Ngudle, was about six when his father died. He remembers his father as a kind man who taught his two sons freedom songs and loved his family.
”I think I’m happy that finally it looks like we will get my father’s remains so we can give him a proper burial,” said Siyanda.
He said the family were still unsure of the circumstances of Ngudle’s death and nobody had applied for amnesty in connection with it through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
”There’s no one who came forward and said: ‘I’m responsible for his death’. That doesn’t make me happy because people were given a platform to tell South Africa and say who did what.” — Sapa