Land must return to blacks

It was a cold Saturday of 20 July, 1985 - the funeral of the Cradock Four, Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlauli.

- Brian Sokutu

Among a group of local and foreign journalists, we descended on the dusty township of Lingelihle in Cradock for the burial of the four anti-apartheid activists brutally killed by apartheid securocrats at the height of repression, which hit the Eastern Cape the hardest.

Not only was the funeral a show of strength by anti-apartheid activists clench fists, chants of "Amandla awethu" (power to the people), singing of freedom songs and fiery speeches - it was a show of defiance against PW Botha's declaration of a state of emergency.

Among the speakers was Dr Beyers Naudé, a leading Afrikaner theologian and anti-apartheid activist, who called for an end to apartheid and the release of political prisoners.

The 1960 Sharpeville massacre had marked a political turning for Naudé, who ended his support for his church, beginning to question the biblical justification of apartheid by the Dutch Reformed Church.