Investigators on Thursday found more human remains on an Eastern Cape farm where the Pebco Three were believed to have been buried, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said.
”We uncovered further human bones and other material that we are going to subject to analysis,” said spokesperson Tlali Tlali.
”We have found burnt human bones, charcoal, burnt tyres, pieces of wrist watches, keys and spent cartridges.”
He said they were found in and around a septic tank on the Post Chalmers farm near Cradock, and would be sent for forensic analysis.
The results of tests done on material that had previously been found there were still not available. Tlali said work at the site would continue.
The NPA announced in July that the remains believed to be those of the Pebco Three, who were murdered by apartheid-era police, were found on the farm that previously belonged to the police.
Investigators had followed up several leads and discovered the remains during a dig there.
The trio, members of the Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation (Pebco) — Sipho Hashe, Qaqawuli Godolozi and Champion Galela — were kidnapped at the Port Elizabeth airport in 1985 by security police and subsequently murdered on the farm.
The perpetrators told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee that the victims had been abducted, interrogated, shot and killed and their remains burnt on wood fires fuelled by diesel at Post Chalmers, said the NPA. The perpetrators also asserted that the ashes were then scraped into black plastic bags and thrown into the Fish River. — Sapa