Technology helps to bring closure but crucial questions about 'Mamelodi 10' remain

Technology has helped uncover an apartheid secret and bring closure to the family of the “Mamelodi 10”. The teenagers were abducted and killed on June 26 1986 in a planned joint operation by Northern Transvaal security police and the SA Defence Force's (SADF) special forces.

New drone technology was used to map out excavation sites to locate the remains of the 10 student activists.

Madeleine Fullard, head of the missing persons task team (MPTT) in the National Prosecuting Authority, said more than 400 pauper graves in Winterveld cemetery were opened in the search for their remains.

Fullard, who found the remains, is mandated to establish the fate and whereabouts of those who disappeared in political circumstances between 1960 and 1994, and to recover their remains where possible.

On Friday, the remains of Jeremiah Ntuli, Morris Kabini, Jeremiah Magagula, Steven Makena, Rooibaard Geldenhuys, Samuel Masilela, Thomas Phiri, Elliot Sathege, Philip Sibanyoni and Abram Makolane were laid to rest beside each other in a Mamelodi cemetery.

The families of the 10 expressed their gratitude while but some said they are still pained at not knowing all the details about their deaths.

Phiri's sister Katherine said it was a miracle they found the last body.

“When I look at [the remains] my heart becomes painful. I remember when we buried my brother, we buried a head without the body. Some were buried without feet, they buried pieces of thighs, chests ... This thing is painful. When I look at [the remains], I ask: 'God, is this how our siblings died — burnt painfully?” she said.

Sathege's sister Estina Sathege said her parents were still pained by the loss of her brother.

“We are satisfied that we have found the last one because always my mother would question when we'd find the 10th one. I said we should pray that they find the 10th one while she is still alive. [These are] our brothers and we are happy they've found them all, but our parents are not enjoying this process. They still feel that pain, and nothing has changed,” Estina said.

Masilela's sister, Nomvula Masilela recalled that she was with his brother the day before he was abducted.

“We felt pain not knowing where to go but in the end, all the mothers who lost their children met up and we went to the police to say we have lost our children. As families, we went through pain. We found their bones. We have buried them, but the main thing that was troubling us and that still troubles us today is, where is Mamasela?” she said.

She was referring to security police agent Joe Mamasela who collected the teenagers in a minibus under the pretence he was an MK member.

Nomvula said they still wonder why Mamasela did this. 

“We have closure but in some parts, not because we want to know where Mamasela is. We don't know if he was arrested or not. We're thankful that we have found the last remains but it's not over. We are still crying because we didn't get the whole truth,” Nomvula said.

It was alleged Mamasela, posing as an MK operative, had convinced the boys to leave the country for military training. However, they were taken to an area near Nietverdient where they were reportedly injected with chemicals to make them sleep and then placed in a kombi which was set alight.

They were severely burnt and later buried as unidentified paupers in Winterveld cemetery. The missing people task team located and exhumed nine of the 10 bodies in 2005.

Fullard said they began to work on the case in 2005 after learning about it during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings.

She said disclosures and NPA investigations led them to the Winterveld cemetery.

“But unfortunately, the old Winterveld cemetery did not have grave markings or numberings, and the numberings were not consecutive, so we basically had to work opening pauper graves to try to locate them. Eventually, I think it was in March 2005, we found the first one and we continued opening graves, I think we opened between 40 to 100 graves at that time to try to locate them,” she said.

Fullard said they were able to recover the nine because they displayed the same burn pattern injuries.

“They were very young males ... teenagers in fact. They showed a lot of the same features. We also found a unique plastic tag with them so they each had this unique plastic tag that was obviously a tag from a mortuary which we never found in any other grave in Winterveld.

“They also had fragments of burnt clothing that were still there and embedded in the remains. There were also fragments of the window glass from the kombi in which they had been burnt.

“In one of the graves we found the foot bones of at least four individuals, reflecting the fact that they just scooped up the remains on the floor of the kombi and put them in a coffin.”

Investigators had assistance from a US expert in bone trauma and burning.

“He came and also examined them. We tried for DNA to see if we could do individual identifications of the remains but unfortunately, fire destroys DNA in bone and we were not able to get DNA matches,” Fullard said. 

In 2008, the families agreed that to bury the nine and left space for the missing remains of the 10th teen.

Fullard said in 2018 and 2019, with the assistance of an Argentine forensic anthropology team, a drone was used to do aerial mapping of the cemetery.

“That enabled us to delineate particular areas, see areas where we hadn't worked before and do a more scientific interpretation of the cemetery and it was through that process we ultimately found the 10th remains and we set a date, I think it was December 19 and the families, the mothers came and attended and we exhumed the last remains.”

The remaining teenager had the same features as the others, Fullard said.

“Burning amputates in the lower parts of limbs, leaves particular burn patterns on the remains, also the fragments of burnt clothing and fragments of glass from the kombi that they were burnt in ... so we were able to conclude that we had recovered them all.

“It's been a very long journey from 2005. The day we did the exhumation on December 19 2019, one of the mothers died that evening, so we have lost one or two along the way.”

The families have asked that commemoration ceremonies be held annually for the teenagers. They have also requested some streets be renamed with their names.

National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shamila Batohi said to date, the MPTT has recovered the remains of 180 people.

The cabinet has also approved a policy to recover the remains of those who died in exile and the MPTT will assist in this process.

“The case of these young men, who have come to be known as the Mamelodi 10, was the very first case the MPTT tackled. It was also the first time that drones were used for human rights work on the African continent,” she said.

Batohi said 16 prosecutors and 39 DPCI investigators have been appointed to deal exclusively with TRC matters, to work with families and investigate cases of murder, torture and disappearances.

“Presently, there are 135 matters under investigation. In some cases, prosecutions have begun. In others, inquests are being held or even re-held to establish the circumstances and responsibility for these deaths. The effluxion of time poses many challenges in the investigation of these matters.”

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