South Africa is wedged between the past, the present and the future, which is why it is significant that in the week of President Cyril Ramaphosa's well-received Sona, Lukhanyo Calata brought devastating unfinished business back into the spotlight.
On Friday, as President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation (Sona) speech dominated South African headlines, Lukhanyo Calata delivered devastating testimony to the Khampepe Inquiry into delayed apartheid-era prosecutions.
Calata has fought a long, hard and relentless battle for more than a quarter of a century, demanding transparency from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) about a behind-the-scenes "secret agreement" between the newly elected ANC government and old apartheid generals that halted prosecutions.
Thirty years into the country's democracy, the wounds of the past are being reopened at the inquiry, with former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma set to be compelled to testify after three unsuccessful attempts to derail proceedings.
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On Friday, Calata (44), a former SABC journalist, unpacked his struggle to excavate the truth from the ashes of the bones of the murdered activists in this emblematic case.
His father, Fort Calata, and fellow Cradock activists Matthew Goniwe, Sicelo Mhlauli and Sparrow Mkonto were murdered by a security police hit squad on 27 June 1985, after which their bodies were set alight.
Betrayal
Calata, who was three when his father was assassinated by the state, did not hold back on Friday, excoriating the ANC post-apartheid leadership...
