Body of first apartheid detainee fatality exhumed

By Nadia Samie
1 March 2007

The family of ANC guerilla Solwandle Looksmart Ngudle arrived at the Mamelodi West cemetery in Johannesburg this morning to witness the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) dig up the grave of the freedom fighter, who died 44-years ago.

Ngudle was the first person to die, on 5 September 1963, in detention, under the apartheid detention laws. At the request of Ngudle’s son, Siyanda, the NPA has been investigating since last year, to locate the remains of the Western Cape Umkhonto We Sizwe commander.

It is thought that Ngudle is one of many detainees who were buried in unmarked graves. The site currently being exhumed was identified through records dating back to the 1960's at the cemetery's office.

Ngudle, a unionist, was born in Langa, Cape Town, where he worked as a street-seller for Contact, a newspaper in support of the Liberal Party.

Trade union federation Cosatu says Ngudle was identified as an activist and detained under the "90 days" Detention Without Trial Act, and that after 17 days of torture, he was found hanging in his cell.

Ngudle’s family was told that he had committed suicide, a version the family say can only be true if their son had been severely tortured.

In a statement to mark the anniversary of the death of Ngudle last year, Cosatu wrote: “The Special Branch and the District Surgeon claimed he committed suicide, but his family insisted he had been tortured and murdered. And, as if to confirm this, four days after his death the government ‘banned’ Ngudle, so that anything he said or wrote while alive could not be quoted. This was tantamount to an admission that his words would have contradicted the lies of the police.”

The exhumation is being conducted by Argentinian forensic anthropologist Luis Fondebrider, Morongoa Mosothwane from the Wits University's Archeology Department and Thabang Manyapelo from the University of Cape Town's Anatomy Department.