Griffiths Mxenge is murdered

Griffiths Mxenge, an African National Congress (ANC) veteran and apartheid activist, was assassinated and his body was severely mutilated in an act of barbaric brutality on 19 November 1981. His murderers used three okapi knives, a hunting knife and a wheel spanner because they were ordered not to kill him with a gun. They inflicted 45 lacerations and stab wounds that pierced his body, lungs, liver and heart. They slit his throat and cut off his ears. They ripped open his stomach. The magistrate at the inquest into his death found that his death was caused by the act of some unknown person or persons. His murderers, now known, are self confessed. They are Dirk Coetzee, Almond Nofomela, Joe Mamasela, Brian Ngqulunga and David Tshikalanga. All were policemen and agents of the apartheid government‘s death squads. In 1996, 15 years later the Amnesty Committee of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) granted them amnesty. The record of the hearing on the death of Griffiths Mxenge before the Amnesty Committee of the TRC contains the confessions of his murderers.