The Cradock Four are abducted by security police and killed on their way home to Cradock
Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli were stopped at a Security Branch roadblock while driving home from Port Elizabeth to Cradock. They were killed and their bodies were later found near Bluewater Bay.
This moment describes violence or loss under apartheid. It is told through the people who lived it, from the sources linked below.
On 27 June 1985 Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli drove from Cradock to Port Elizabeth for a UDF meeting. Goniwe and Calata were teachers and community leaders in Cradock. On the way home that night they were stopped at a Security Branch roadblock at Olifantskop Pass. They were detained and killed, and their burnt car and their bodies were later found near Bluewater Bay, outside Port Elizabeth.
Thousands of people from across the country attended their funeral in Cradock on 20 July 1985, where an SACP banner was displayed in public. That evening the government declared a state of emergency in 36 magisterial districts.
Inquests in 1987 and 1993 named no one responsible, although the second found that the security forces were to blame. In 1999 the TRC refused amnesty to six former police officers. A third inquest began in Gqeberha in 2025.
Why it matters
The killings and the funeral became a turning point of the 1980s: the state of emergency that followed marked a new phase of repression, and the families' search for answers continues decades later.
- Source: The Cradock Four, Unfinished Business of the TRC (Foundation for Human Rights) · Fort Calata, South African History Online · Inquest team to visit site where Cradock Four bodies were found, SABC News (2025) · Funeral of the Cradock Four, Cradock, 1985 (Gille de Vlieg photographs, AL3274/C29), South African History Archive · Partial State of Emergency, July 1985, South African History Online
Where it happened
Olifantskop Pass on the road to Cradock
The four were stopped at a Security Branch roadblock at Olifantskop Pass, on the main road north towards Cradock, roughly 89 km by road from Port Elizabeth. The exact roadblock position is not known, so the circle covers the pass.
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Where it happened Approximate
Olifantskop Pass on the road to Cradock
The four were stopped at a Security Branch roadblock at Olifantskop Pass, on the main road north towards Cradock, roughly 89 km by road from Port Elizabeth. The exact roadblock position is not known, so the circle covers the pass.
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Related place Approximate
Bluewater Bay, Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha)
Their burnt car and their bodies were found in the Bluewater Bay area on the northern edge of Port Elizabeth, some in scrub and far apart. The exact spots are not published, so this circle marks the suburb.
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Related place Area
Cradock (Nxuba), home town and funeral
The four men lived in Cradock and its township Lingelihle, and were buried there on 20 July 1985. The circle covers the town rather than the stadium or graves.
