The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA's) Missing Persons Task Team has finally succeeded in tracing the fragmented remains of missing uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) activist Patrick Mahlangu from Mamelodi after several earlier unsuccessful excavations. Patrick Mahlangu was abducted, strangled to death and his body blown up by members of the Security Police in March 1986.
Black plastic bags containing human remains showing signs of massive trauma from an explosion were located earlier this month by the Missing Persons Task Team in a grave allocated to another pauper in Soshanguve cemetery.
Patrick Mahlangu was an MK cadre who operated in underground structures in Mamelodi. He disappeared from his home in Mamelodi on the night of 18 March 1986 when men pretending to be MK cadres (askaris) took him away.
During the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) amnesty hearing by members of the Security police and askaris, it was revealed that he was taken to a private farm Soutpan near Warmbaths (now Bela-Bela) where he was interrogated about his MK activities and assaulted.
A decision was taken that he should be killed as it was believed that identity of certain informers or askaris had been exposed. He was then taken in a kombi to the railway line near Northam where he was strangled.
When they realised that he was still alive, one of them killed him by stepping on his throat. His body was then blown up next to the railway line to give the impression that he had accidentally blown himself up while trying to plant explosives on the railway line. His highly fragmented remains were subsequently found and reported to the local police by members of the public. They were sent to Medunsa for forensic examination. Investigations indicate that these fragmented remains were then buried in a pauper's grave at Soshanguve Cemetery by Rambau's Undertakers.
Venue: Soshanguve Cemetery
Date: 15 June 2011
Time: 10h00
RSVP:
Adv Mthunzi Mhaga
Cell: 072 198 6863
E-mail: mcmhaga@npa.gov.za
Source: SAPA
