President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed that the country will not rest until the truth about 23-year-old Nokuthula Simelane’s disappearance is uncovered, her remains recovered and those responsible are held to account.
More than four decades after apartheid security police abducted Simelane, her family remains without the one thing that could finally allow them to mourn her properly: a grave.
At the inaugural Nokuthula Simelane Memorial Lecture at the University of Mpumalanga on Thursday, President Ramaphosa confronted that unfinished chapter of South Africa’s past head-on, declaring that the country owes the Simelane family nothing less than the full truth about what happened to their daughter.
“We will not abandon the search for the truth about what happened to Nokuthula. We will not rest until she can be laid to rest and until those responsible are held to account,” President Ramaphosa said.
The President’s pledge came as the Simelane family, including Nokuthula’s mother, sister and uncle, gathered for an occasion that sought not only to remember a young woman who gave her life to the liberation struggle, but to ensure that her disappearance remains a national question.
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Simelane was abducted after being lured to Johannesburg, tortured and disappeared in 1983. Her remains have never been recovered.
“For more than four decades, the Simelane family has not been permitted the basic dignity of laying their daughter to rest,” the President said.
At the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), former commander of the Soweto Intelligence Unit Willem Coetzee admitted to Nokuthula’s capture and torture but denied killing her.
The President said the country later learnt from a colleague of Coetzee that she had been murdered and that her body was buried in the vicinity of Rustenburg in the North West.
“Today, the nation still awaits the outcome of the criminal charges that were brought against Coetzee.”
For President Ramaphosa, the search for Nokuthula is not simply a matter of historical record.
“It is not enough for a family to be told that their child was murdered and buried somewhere unrecorded.
“The Simelane family deserves to know the specific place where their daughter lies, so that they may finally lay her to rest with the dignity that was denied her in life,” he said.
Addressing the family, the President acknowledged that the pain of the 23-year-old’s disappearance extends beyond the Simelane household.
“To the Simelane family, we say that your pain is the nation’s pain. It is a pain that will not be washed away by the mere passage of time.”
He said South Africa had a responsibility to uncover the truth surrounding her disappearance and that of other activists who gave their lives in the struggle against apartheid.
“We owe it to Nokuthula, and to every activist like her, to make sure the truth is uncovered and that justice is finally served,” he said.
President Ramaphosa also rejected the notion that the work of the TRC brought the country’s transitional justice process to an end.
“There is a view that has taken root in parts of our national life: that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded this business and that it is time to move on. We must resist this view.
Confronting the past
The President warned that forgetting the atrocities of apartheid would amount to more than simply losing historical memory.
“We must not allow the passage of time to dim our recollection of the atrocities committed against our people. We must not allow ourselves to forget.
“Because to forget is to deny the suffering and the sacrifice of those who made our freedom possible,” he said.
He said forgetting could also create space for atrocities to be repeated and remove the moral burden from those responsible for crimes of the past.
The President further called for the country to confront the broader system that enabled apartheid-era crimes.
“We must similarly confront the view that responsibility for apartheid’s crimes rested only with the security officials who committed the crimes and not with the system that sheltered and rewarded them.”
President Ramaphosa welcomed the renewed efforts by the National Prosecuting Authority to pursue truth and justice through inquests and prosecutions of alleged perpetrators.
He also expressed support for the Judicial Commission of Inquiry led by retired Constitutional Court Judge Sisi Khampepe, which is expected to complete its work by the end of this year.
READ | President Ramaphosa extends Khampepe Commission term to December 2026
“We have been clear that this inquiry must be able to do its work without fear or favour. We will stand behind this Commission until the truth is told,” he said.
The President said justice remains essential to achieving lasting reconciliation.
“Without justice, there can never be lasting peace. We owe the Simelane family and every family still waiting for a grave to visit nothing less than the whole truth,” he said.
Foundation
The memorial lecture also marked the launch of the Nokuthula Simelane Foundation and the Nokuthula Simelane Centre for Gender and Intersectional Studies at the University of Mpumalanga.
The initiatives are intended to ensure that Nokuthula’s name lives beyond commemoration, becoming a vehicle for research, education, gender equality, youth engagement, historical memory and public dialogue.
“The Nokuthula Simelane Foundation and the Nokuthula Simelane Centre for Gender and Intersectional Studies established here at the University of Mpumalanga are part of our arsenal of memory, remembrance and renewal,” President Ramaphosa said.
He said the Centre should ensure that the voices of women, young people and historically marginalised communities continue to shape the country.
For a family that has spent more than 40 years searching for a missing daughter, Thursday’s lecture offered neither a grave nor final closure.
It placed their search firmly back at the centre of the national conversation. – SAnews.gov.za
Source: Original report at SAnews.gov.za.
