“Betrayed Twice”: Fort Calata’s Son Testifies at TRC Inquiry, Names Mbeki and Zuma

Forty-one years after security police murdered his father, Lukhanya Calata stood before a judicial commission and delivered a verdict that reached far beyond the apartheid era. His father, he said, was betrayed not once, but twicefirst by the apartheid regime that killed him, and then by the very liberation movement his father died for.

“My father was betrayed by his own state, the apartheid state, and then the ANC came into power, and then the ANC betrayed them again,” Calata told the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into alleged political interference in Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) cases.

On Monday, the commission continues hearing evidence from Calata, followed by former TRC commissioner Yasmin Sooka. But it was last week’s testimony that landed with the force of a hammer.

The Cradock Four Legacy

Fort Calata was one of the Cradock Fouranti-apartheid activists brutally murdered by security police in June 1985. Alongside Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkhonto, and Sicelo Mhlauli, their deaths became a symbol of apartheid’s brutality and the sacrifice demanded of those who fought for freedom.

For decades, their families have sought full accountability. The TRC process, they believed, would deliver it. It did not.

“The Worst Form of Betrayal”

Calata’s testimony was unsparing. He accused the ANC-led government of systemic failure extending across three decades.

“The ANC and the governments and the various administrations that it’s led for 31 years now, have failed us in ways that we can’t even begin to articulate,” he said. “It’s the worst form of betrayal. We didn’t expect better from the apartheid government, but we expected a lot, a lot, a lot better from the ANC. So they have betrayed us.”

His anger was directed not only at the party but at its most senior leaders.

Mbeki and Zuma in the Crosshairs

Calata singled out former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma, both of whom have mounted legal challenges seeking the recusal of commission chairperson, retired Justice Sisi Khampepe.

“The TRC handed over its reports. It handed those reports over to former President Thabo Mbeki, not to anyone else. It handed it over to him, as the president of this republic. What did he do about it? What did his organisation do about it? What did his government do about it?”

Zuma fared no better.

“I despise politicians. I really do. I think they’re like the scum of the earth,” Calata said, drawing a distinction between political activistslike his fatherand the leaders who followed. “When former President Jacob Zuma is mentioned to them directly, commissioners said they don’t know, and that they understand the plight of the victims’ families… But yet they fight tooth and nail to stop the proceedings of this commission.”

He called on the commission to use its powers to subpoena both former presidents. “I’m hoping that this commission will use the opportunity and the powers that this commission has to subpoena.”

The Commission’s Mandate

President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Justice Khampepe in 2025 to investigate whether political interference prevented the investigation and prosecution of apartheid-era crimes recommended by the TRC. The commission followed a lawsuit by 23 families seeking R167 million in damages over prolonged delays.

Zuma and Mbeki failed in an initial bid to have Khampepe recused last month. They have since launched another legal challenge.

A Generation’s Reckoning

For Lukhanya Calata, the commission represents a final opportunity for accountabilitynot from the apartheid regime, whose crimes are well-documented, but from the liberation movement that inherited power and, in his view, abandoned its own.

His father died for a free South Africa. The son now demands that the free South Africa honour that sacrifice. Whether the commission can deliver what the TRC could not remains an open question. But Calata’s testimony ensures it will be asked in the clearest possible terms.

{Source: Citizen}

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