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The family of cooperative governance and traditional affairs minister Thembi Nkadimeng’s prayer for answers and justice for her late sister, Nokuthula Simelane, who was abducted and killed by the then SA Security Police unit in 1983, might have to wait longer as the fitness to stand trial by one of the accused continues to be a burning question in court.
This week, the North Gauteng High Court judges in Pretoria were forced to postpone the case to July for the resumption of the inquiry into Willem Coetzee’s fitness to stand trial.
The inquiry, which started early this year, had been adjourned while the criminal case continued.
Simelane, who was a member of the ANC military wing, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), was abducted by members of the SA Security Police under the command of Coetzee in September 1983.
She was lured into a meeting for an underground branch at Carlton Centre, Johannesburg, when she was abducted.
During her subsequent detention for approximately five weeks, she was continuously assaulted and tortured by the group of security police, who were attempting to extract information concerning MK or its operations.
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The unit also wanted to recruit Simelane to become a security police informer, but she refused. Coetzee and Anton Pretorius were indicted for her murder.
However, Coetzee’s lawyers wanted him to be assessed in 2022. After the State rejected the report by a private psychiatrist and psychologist, which found him to be unfit to stand trial, Coetzee was referred to the Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital, which found him fit to stand trial. His lawyers disputed the report, which forced the court to institute an inquiry to determine Coetzee’s fitness to stand trial as the State and the defence disagreed on the issue.
Nkadimeng, who is planning to launch a foundation in honour of Simelane, said she knew that her sister was beaten to death. She said:
Nkadimeng, who was only nine years old when her sister was abducted and killed, said there has been no peace for them as a family to get justice for Simelane.
“Nokuthula disappeared when I was nine years old. I got to fully understand her story when I accompanied my father in 1996 to the then John Vorster Square Police Station, now Johannesburg Central Police Station, to open a case,” she said.
Nkadimeng said for many years they focused mainly on getting her remains, but since 2015 her and her late brother have been toying with an idea of starting a foundation in her honour.
She said:
She said according to the latest report, South Africa has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies, of ages between 10 to 19, in the world.
“Between 2022 and 2023, 90 037 teenage pregnancies were recorded, 660 of those were girls under the age of 13 years.
"Surely a lot needs to be done to support, guide teenage and young girls in reproductive health [and] the importance of education, but also to ensure that through the foundation - women leaders like Nokuthula are produced,” she said.
Nkadimeng believes Nokuthula’s story must be heard.
Said Nkadimeng:
She said Nokuthula paid with the only thing she had left - her life.
“Painful as it is, I am glad that she didn’t forget the faces of farm workers who were being brutally murdered in the Bethal potato farms. She didn’t forget the struggles of those who came before her,” she said.
Nkadimeng said she knows that her sister was beaten to death.
“They wouldrown her by dipping her in a round steel dam where cattle’s drink until she can't breathe and will sometimes be unconscious. I owe it to her, this fight yes is about my parents, but it is mostly about her and her dignity,” said Nkadimeng.
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The minister said she hopes that the foundation will teach the community and join hands in shaping the future of young women.
“It takes a community to raise a child. A sacrifice that was made by our forebears, freedom came at a heavy price. It’s our responsibility to protect it, but most importantly make freedom meaningful and develop one another,” she said.
