These biographies were compiled over seven years (2003-2009) from research comprising material from archives, both inquests, magazine and newspaper reports and articles, the TRC Report and the transcriptions of the hearings, books, interviews with relatives, and the internet. I apologise for any errors that may have crept in during the editing, and would appreciate receiving any information which could add to our knowledge of these men and the events which took place.

Biography of Matthew Goniwe

Matthew Goniwe  was born on 27/12/1947 in Cradock, to two farm labourers, David and Elizabeth, a few kilometres from where Olive Schreiner wrote “The Story of An African Farm". He was the youngest of eight children. He attended St James' Primary school and Sam Xhallie Secondary School, where he obtained his junior certificate.

He matriculated at Healdtown, then studied for a teachers' diploma at Fort Hare. He returned to Sam Xhallie to teach maths and science, where he was a popular teacher. “He was very sensitive, down-to-earth. He believed in affirming people," says Nyameka, his widow.

He would visit pupils' houses and on holidays he would go to other areas to pop in on the families of his out-of-town pupils. His wife Nyameka passed matric in Port Elizabeth in 1971. On her first holiday back in Cradock she met Matthew again, and they fell in love. But in 1972 Matthew and another Cradock schoolteacher, Mr John Hlekani, founded a school at Mqanduli, in the Transkei, eventually known as Holomisa High.

In 1975 Matthew married Nyameka. She later qualified as a social worker. They had two children, Nobuzwe and Nyaniso.  “I was in on everything," said Nyameka, “we would discuss things . . . I was his supporter and we shared the same principles."

Matthew’s political views had been influenced by the Rev Canon James Calata (a founder of the African National Congress (ANC) and former secretary general) and his eldest brother, Jacques Goniwe, who had been the first person to burn his pass book in Cradock as part of the ANC’s Defiance Campaign of the 1950s before it was banned.

In 1960 Jacques left to join the ANC in Maseru. He returned as part of the guerrilla force known as the Luthuli Detachment in 1967, entering then-Rhodesia just below Victoria Falls at night, and, weeks later, was killed by the Rhodesian security forces in a contact. Three other Cradock men, Gangathi Hlekani, Lenon Melani and Ben Ngalo, died in this Wankie-Sipholilo campaign.

While in the Transkei, Matthew joined a reading group which studied Marxism and communism. The group’s activities were betrayed by a student from Fort Hare, and Goniwe was arrested on 19 July, 1976. Five men (including the Ntsebeza brothers) were charged under the Suppression of Communism Act. After a controversial year-long trial in the Transkei, Matthew and four others were convicted under Section 11 (a) of the then-Internal Security Act (Act 44 0f 1950) on 1 September, 1977 and four of them sentenced in the Umtata High Court to four years in jail (one of them got a suspended sentence). When he came out of Umtata Prison on 31 August 1981, the security police sent Matthew back to Cradock.

Matthew then completed a BA through Unisa. He got a teaching position on 1 March, 1982, at Ngweba High, in Graaff Reinet. After a year there, he was appointed acting headmaster of Sam Xhallie High in Cradock on 11 January 1983, after applying for a transfer to his hometown. “Oom Gilli" Alfred Skweyiya, a friend of the family since childhood, described Matthew as a “born teacher" Matthew loved music, people and ideas. He introduced discipline into the schools, gaining the respect of the children, parents and teachers alike.

Here he met Fort Calata, another teacher, and discovered they spoke the same language politically. They were to become bosom friends and comrades, and leaders of their community.

In May 1983, Goniwe called a mass meeting to discuss how the community should respond to high rents, and the Cradock Residents' Association (Cradora) was formed. Nyameka chaired it. Cradora won the fight and the rents were lowered.

After the launch of the United Democratic Front on 20 August 1983, Cradora affiliated to this broad-based movement of organisations against Apartheid. But the Security Police met with the Department of Education and Training (DET) on 18 October 1983 and told them to transfer the “troublemaker" out of Cradock. The DET sent him a curt telegram on 29 November 1983, informing him of his transfer to Graaff Reinet from 1 January, 1984.

But, at a Cradoya meeting attended by about 2 000 people, both the community and Matthew refused the transfer. When Matthew did not report for work in Graaff Reinet the following year, the DET told him he had “dismissed himself" and he was officially fired on 27 January 1984. Children began boycotting classes on February 3. The boycott spread throughout Cradock and then to the surrounding areas. It was to become the longest boycott in South Africa’s history – 15 months.

At a Cradoya meeting on 8 March 1984, about 1 000 pupils decided that all schools in Cradock must support the boycott. The next day five people were arrested after police teargassed a crowd of about 800 youths. On the 10 March, Cradora/Cradoya held another meeting at which representatives of the UDF, the and other organisations from Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage attended, and two days later protested outside the schools, with posters saying “We demand Goniwe. They won’t silence us until we get Goniwe'  By the next day, 4 236 pupils were part of the boycott. This brought the regional director, Merboldt to Cradock and, days later, the police and teargas.

During this time, the Security Police harassed Matthew, appointed rural organizer for the UDF on 6 March 1984. Cradock Security Police chief, Major Eric Winter, assigned Lt Henri Fouche to watch Goniwe openly all the time. They were sworn enemies. Once Fouche put a gun to Matthew’s temple and threatened to kill him.

Another policeman called Hattingh tapped Goniwe’s phone by disguising himself in a Post Office jacket. The tamatie (electronic listening device) planted in their house could catch the sound of a primus stove.

On 23 March, 1984 the local magistrate banned all meetings of Cradora and Cradoya, The community responded by throwing stones, and the police teargassed the crowds –including illegal teargassing a crowd in a church hall. Police also used rubber bullets.

At 10am, on 19 March, at a SSC meeting, former Finance Minister Barend du Plessis proposed the “removal" of Goniwe: “In Cradock is daar twee oud-onderwysers wat as agitators optree. Dit sou goed wees as hulle verwyder kon word." (In Cradock there are two ex-teachers who are acting at agitators. It would be good if they could be removed.)

Two days later, head of Security Police intelligence, Major Craig Williamson (a former student spy) dispatched a subordinate, Jacobus Jan Hendrik Van Jaarsveld to go down to Cradock and investigate if it would be possible to “take out" Goniwe. De Klerk said he remembered the SSC meeting clearly, but that Goniwe was to be “redeployed" Van Jaarsveld later testified at the Truth and Reconcilation Commission about this incident.

Days later, on 30 March, the Security Police swooped one night and detained Matthew, Fort Calata, and Matthew’s cousin Mbulelo Goniwe. Two days earlier they had detained Fezile Donald and Madoda Jacobs, the head prefect. They were taken in under Section 28 of the Internal Security Act. The following day, Minister of Law & Order Louis le Grange banned all meetings for three months. Tensions escalated. There were riots, petrol bombings, and the stoning of houses of community councillors. The police were reported to be sjambokking children.

Boycott-related violence began on 15 April, when students marched through the township demanding the reinstatement of Matthew Goniwe. On 27 May, police and the SADF cordoned off Lingelihle township searching for public violence suspects. In June 1984, Mr Matthew Goniwe, Mr Fort Calata, Mr Mbulelo Goniwe and Mr Madoda Jacobs were listed in terms of the Internal Security Act. They were still in detention.

After the police teargassed the township on June 15, the community began a boycott of white shops for one day on the anniversary of the Soweto uprising, June 16. The police dispersed the crowd with sjamboks and teargas, and police vehicles were stoned. More than 200 people were charged with arson and unlawful gathering.

In August, a successful seven-day boycott was called of white shops, protesting against the detentions of their leaders. They were released on 10 October to a heroes welcome.

That December, Matthew called for a “Black Christmas" People did not buy liquor or food from white-owned shops, infuriating the white business community. The black community of Lingelihle was showing it’s economic muscle. The boycott had also brought Matthew to some prominence. In January 1985, he was visited by Danny O'Grady of the US Embassy, Sheena Duncan of the Black Sash, and he travelled to Cape Town to meet Senator Edward Kennedy.

In February 1985, at a funeral for Thozi Skweyiya, (shot during the riots of 3 February) Goniwe and others were appealing to the community to stop the violence. Matthew took his life in his hands by stopping a group of youths from stoning a police patrol. On 18 March, an international television crew interviewed him.

On Thursday 28 March 1985 the Cabinet announced heightened SADF activity (“verhoogde SAW optrede" following a “deterioration" in the security situation since September 1984. On the same day, the Joint Management Committee met in Port Elizabeth, chaired by the local military commander, Brigadier CP “Joffel" van der Westhuizen,

Cradora meanwhile had had several meetings with the DET, and many meetings with regional director Merboldt, in attempts to get Matthew reinstated. A senior DET official, De Beer, said that the case was “closed". After a community delegation to Cape Town, the DET decided to re-open the case and agreed to meet Goniwe in Cradock.

Goniwe told them he wanted the children to go back to school. Cradora asked De Beer to help them get permission for a public meeting (there was a banning order for all meetings) on 29 March 1985, which De Beer did, and the meeting was held on Easter Monday. Goniwe said the children had to go back to school – after 15 months.

In May, when it appeared Goniwe would be reinstated, the army and SAP raided Lingelihle, which was sealed off and pamphlets linking Cradora to “violence, communism and terrorism" were dropped from helicopters. Matthew was verbally attacked over loudspeakers from the helicopters: “Goniwe did not give you water. The ANC is among you. Stay in your houses." Ten hours later the operation ended with a blaring voice: “Thank you for your cooperation."

The police made regular death threats against Goniwe. He had received death threats over the phone, and also received a bottle containing a note with a graphic of a gallows and “Goniwe" written on a cut-out of a human figure hanging from it. The bottle also contained a dead grasshopper. The Security Forces suspected Matthew was working underground for the ANC. They didn’t know he was chairman of the ANC’s underground Military Working Committee (MWC) in the Karoo.

Lingelihle was one of the first townships to introduce street committees. Under the guidance of Cradora, the 17 000 residents were divided into seven zones. About 40 activists were assigned to these different areas and held meetings in each zone to elect officials and each household could vote for their street representatives. This was known in some circles as the “G-Plan" or “Goniwe’s Plan".

By late 1984, Cradock and the township of Lingelihle, a long-time area of resistance and struggle, was seen as a model of organisation by the UDF. Alex, one of Matthew’s elder brothers, said: “These people who killed my brother carried out an order. The authority came from above. They should have refused to do it, but they would lose their jobs. Matthew was murdered because he had mobilised the people in Cradock and the surrounding areas on a scale never seen before. He destroyed the community council system; they never forgave him for that."

The security forces were making great efforts to “stabilise" the security situation in the Eastern Cape. The regime had a militarised control structure called the National Security Management System (NSMS), headed by the State Security Council (SSC) and with national, regional and area committees, run mostly by military and police commanders. The NSMS was a secret, unaccountable and parallel system of government. While the white voters thought they ran the country democratically, the NSMS actually took all the important decisions, and it was comprised of a majority of unelected securocrats.

Colonel Hermanus Barend du Plessis said the PE area was “going up in flames" In one SSC meeting, Magnus Malan threatened to fire the military commander of the area, Brigadier CP “Joffel" Van der Westhuizen, if he did not stabilise the region. A decision was taken to eliminate activists spearheading the revolution. “Joffel" believed Goniwe was “at the forefront of the revolutionary attack against the state".

Goniwe had been transforming ANC political underground structures into military formations. Activist Arnold Stofile had helped Goniwe set up an underground ANC area political committee (APC) for the Karoo region in 1980. The fledgling Cradock structures were linked through Stofile to the chief of the ANC’s underground mission in Lesotho, Chris Hani, later to become the leader of the ANC’s military wing, Unkhonto We Sizwe (The Spear of the Nation). By 1982, when Goniwe had enough cells in his area, he reported directly to Hani. By 1983 Goniwe was organising Graaff Reinet, then wider afield throughout the Eastern Cape region.

Goniwe’s Security Police file number was S4/43680. He was classified as an “A File" activist, together with the following known Cradock activists: Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto, Mbulelo Goniwe, Gladwell Makaula, Madoda Jacobs, Elizabeth Sibanda, Louisa Makaula, Nomsa Frans, Poni Minors, Alex Goniwe, Gilli Skweyiya, Tamsanqa Hani, Pa Puwani, Mthuthezeli Ntombela, Wekens Soga, Mzimkulu Mzinzile, and Sipho Puwani.

Goniwe was seen as the biggest problem in the Eastern Cape, and he was referred to as a “terrorist". His file was at least six volumes, and was moved to a strong room after his death. Each volume contained a diary called an SAP 5, containing inscriptions of field workers own observations. His file was seen in the strong room in 1987 (it was used for the Delmas Trial, and Major Winter would sometimes take documents to PE), but it later disappeared. Goniwe was under constant surveillance.

The Security Police could work out the numbers dialled on a tapped line by slowing the tape down and counting the clicks. If they knew where the call was from, Winter would call their local Security Police to see if the call was tapped. If they did not know, he would telex Pretoria headquarters, and this would be circulated to everyone.

Thursday 23 May, 1985, was a significant day. Deputy Minister of Law and Order, Adriaan Vlok visited Port Elizabeth to see for himself what all the fuss was about. He visited Cradock. The same day the Eastern Province Joint Management Committee (JMC) met over the Goniwe issue, chaired by the local military commander, Brigadier CP “Joffel" van der Westhuizen, and attended by regional Security Police chief Harold Snyman. It was decided that Matthew had fired himself, although DET regional director, Merboldt, did not support the decision.

After the meeting, Vlok phoned the Minister of Cooperative Development and Education in Cape Town to delay the reappointment of Goniwe until Law and Order Minister Louis Le Grange had discussed the matter at a Cabinet meeting scheduled soon after in Pretoria. Also following the meeting, the local military commander, Brigadier CP “Joffel" van der Westhuizen, sent a signal to the SSC in Pretoria for the personal attention of Lt General A J Van Deventer or Major General van Rensburg, in which he described a discussion at an Eastern Province JMC meeting on 25 May 1985 at which the situation at black schools was discussed. Brigadier Van der Westhuizen urged the SSC to “urgently consider" the recommendation that Goniwe & Calata should “never, ever" be reappointed to any post in the DET “under any circumstances" (the infamous “nooit, ooit” signal). It was sent by Colonel Lourens du Plessis.

In a separate development, the next day, Friday 24 May, DET official Jaap Strydom, and DET Deputy Director of Community Communications, Johannes Vermaak, met Goniwe at the Masonic Hotel in Cradock to discuss his future. Strydom told him only the Minister could reappoint him.

At the beginning of June 1985, Winter ordered an intensification of surveillance of Goniwe. Things were hotting up. On 5 June, activist preacher the Rev Allan Boesak visited Cradock and spent the night with Goniwe.

On Thursday 6 June, 1985, the DET’s Jaap Strydom travelled to Cradock again and subsequently supported the case for reinstatement, against the wishes of the security hawks. EP Security Police Chief Harold Snyman wrote to the SSC in a telex marked “Streng Geheim" (Top Secret) and which stated that Goniwe should not be reappointed, his view supported by a Major Schutte and Major Eric Winter (the head of the Cradock Security Police).

Also on 6 June 1985, Deputy Minister of Police Adriaan Vlok chaired a meeting of the  Action Committee at Police HQ. This “Secret" document, censored at a later date by unknown persons, discussed the situation in Cradock, described as “fairly quiet".

Jaap Strydom, from the DET, reported on his meeting on 24 May with Matthew Goniwe. It was at this meeting that it was decided the SSC would convene a “works committee" that would recommend a course of action to the chairman (Vlok) by 12 June.

The very next day, Friday 7 June, 1985, Major General J Frederick Johannes Van Rensburg, of the SSC Secretariat, phoned “Joffel" van der Westhuizen to discuss Goniwe. The two officers decided Goniwe and two other people (Fort Calata and Mbulelo Goniwe) should be “permanently removed from society as a matter of urgency". The plotters discussed the likely repercussions, saying a similar reaction could be expected to the protests that followed the disappearance of the Pebco three a month earlier.

Gen Janse van Rensburg wanted a submission to this effect from “Joffel" because he wished to brief the same day the special works committee. As a result of this discussion, Colonel Lourens du Plessis sent a “Signal Message Form" dated June 7, 1985 addressed to the SSC and detailing the earlier telephone discussion. It was marked urgent and top secret. Adamus P Stemmert, head of SSC Strategic Communication, said he was shown the signal by Van Rensburg as an example of “unacceptable terminology."

Meanwhile, at the SSC, Gen FJ Van Rensburg’s special works committee to deal with the Goniwe issue contained Col MacDonald of the SAP (known to be opposed to Goniwe’s reinstatement) and chaired by Air Force General Pieter “Kiewiet" Johannes Geldenhuys. The Secret document weighed up several options: arrest and charge him, detention without trial, restrict him, find him other work, or return him to education.

On the 10 June 1985, the SSC met in Cape Town. Present were FW de Klerk, (Home Affairs), Louis le Grange (Law and Order), Pik Botha (Foreign Affairs), Magnus Malan (Defence), Barend du Plessis (Finance), Adriaan Vlok (Deputy Minister of Defence and Law & Order), General Constand Viljoen (Head of the SADF), Dr L D Barnard (head of National Intelligence) and General P J Coetzee (Commissioner of Police). This meeting discussed the “threat facing South Africa" and other classified business.

The report of Gen Geldenhuys was made on 12 June 1985, and was altered and edited by Gen Van Rensburg without Geldenhuys' knowledge, before it was forwarded to the ministers in Cape Town.

Also on this day, it is believed (the minutes remain classified to this day) that the SSC met (present were President PW Botha, SADF chief Constand Viljoen, Foreign Minister Pik Botha, Justice Minister Kobie Coetsee, and Security Police Chief Gen Johan Coetzee, and Defence Minister Magnus Malan). At this SSC meeting, it was recommended that Goniwe be reinstated, despite opposition from the hawks. Van Rensburg says he tabled the signal from “Joffel" Van Der Westhuizen verbally, but others at the meeting dispute this. Some claim that Minister of National Education Dr Gerrit Viljoen and Law & Order Deputy Minister Adriaan Vlok were discussing the merits of reinstating Goniwe.  In later court evidence, it was said the signal was received by Gen van Rensburg only on June 17, after the group had made its recommendations, but this is also disputed.

The SSRC “Works Committee”’s undated Top Secret report to Vlok had two options: neutralising Goniwe through security legislation, or bringing him “back into the fold" by reappointing him. The security options were dismissed as not solving the problem, and the report recommended he be reappointed where he could be “controlled" and “disciplined" within the professional teaching code.

On 13 June, 1985, a Stratcom Policy Guideline was sent to Brig P J Geldenhuys regarding the reappointment of Goniwe as a headmaster. This Top Secret document recommended Goniwe be sent on “orientation courses" and he be carefully monitored. It suggested covert attempts should be made to restrict his extramural activities.

On 14 June the DET met community representatives and was assured the schools situation would be normalised with Goniwe’s reappointment. In a secret memo to senior DET officials dated 18 June, it was stated that the local Cradock Security Forces knew of Goniwe’s impending reinstatement, and supported it. It also hinted at the conflict the DET had been through with the police. The final approval for the reinstatement had to come from the Minister, and the matter was discussed on 28 June (the day after the four activists had disappeared). A handwritten note on the document states that news of the burnt out car reached the DET on 29 June, and the death of Goniwe on 3 July. Then there is a curt “put away these files please" written at the bottom.

Van Rensburg was a key figure for the Geldenhuys “werkscommitee" he represented the attitude of the “veiligheidsgemeenskap" (security community), reportbacks were to him, he received the signal, and his name was on the (changed) Geldenhuys report.

In court, Van Der Westhuizen and Van Rensburg both agreed that reference to higher authority for approval of ops involving extra-legal activity is a recognised practise in counter revolutionary warfare. Van Der Westhuizen denied that he or the EP JMC ever planned or approved the murder of any person.

Given the fact that the Cradock activists were killed within weeks of the Eastern Province JMC’s assassination proposal being made to the SSC Secretariat, it is almost certain that the full SSC, chaired by President PW Botha and attended by Nobel Peace Prize winning former South African president, FW de Klerk, sanctioned it. At the time the SSC made the murder decision, FW de Klerk was a “co-opted‿member of the council. Then, After the Cradock murders, the man responsible for implementing the death warrants, “Joffel" Van der Westhuizen, was promoted to SADF commander of the Johannesburg area, and later to chief of staff of the SADF’s Military Intelligence, a very senior post.

On 25 June, 1985, the Commissioner of Police submitted a Top Secret report to the Minister of Law and Order, outlining the actions surrounding Goniwe. With such a flurry of activity around Goniwe, it seems some wanted to see him reappointed, and others were saying: “Over my dead body"  In the event, it seems that the hit squad triumphed.

Goniwe usually went to Port Elizabeth every Wednesday to report to the UDF leadership As UDF organiser, Goniwe travelled a lot, mostly in his Honda Ballade, registration number CAT 8479, which had been given to him by the UDF for his work. On 24 June he called Derrick Swarts in PE to say he would come down a day later because he had to address a rally in Cradock on the Wednesday 26 June. The Security Police knew about his changed travel arrangements, they transcribed the call. It was Security Police practice to inform PE Branch if Goniwe was going to PE. Snyman or Hermanus du Plessis would be informed. Cradock Security Police chief Eric Winter and two other white Security Policemen left the office on the morning of the 27th, and did not say where they were going. They returned the following day, seeming anxious and secretive.

On 27 June 1985, Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli, left for Port Elizabeth at about 10am. Sicelo was an old childhood friend of Matthew’s. He was a school principal in Oudtshoorn, and was in Cradock for the holidays. He decided to go with Matthew “to catch up on old times". The car was spotted at Cookhouse by police there, at around lunchtime. In the afternoon, Matthew attended meetings with his comrades.

His last meeting, at the house of UDF activist Michael Coetsee, finished at around 21h00 and the four left at about 21h10, after Matthew refused the invitation from his friend Derrick Swarts, to stay over and not travel at night. He told Derrick he didn’t spend enough time with his family and wanted to get home. He would only stop for the police.

It was the last time they were seen alive. The four were abducted from a car in which they were driving, and assassinated. Mystery surrounded the finding of the burnt-out car, with two different sets of number plates, and then, in two different areas, burnt bodies were found (Sparrow and Sicelo). The police could not explain how, if the activists had been under constant and intensified surveillance, and travelling together, they could have disappeared and been murdered. Days later, the bodies of Matthew and Fort were found, also burnt, stabbed and mutilated.

Two inquests failed to get to the truth, the second inquest opened after a newspaper, New Nation, on 8 May 1992, published a copy of a top-secret “signal message'‿sent to the State Security Council on 7 June 1985 from the Eastern Province Joint Management Centre. The message detailed a telephone conversation between Brigadier CP “Joffel" van der Westhuizen and a General Van Rensburg, a senior member of the SSC secretariat. Three names, Matthew Goniwe, Mbulelo Goniwe and Fort Calata were targeted to be  “permanently removed from society, as a matter of urgency."

The second inquest in 1992 found the Security Forces responsible for their deaths, but could not make the crucial link between the actual killers who applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Amnesty, and the people who ordered the murders.

General Nic Janse van Rensburg, second in command of the Eastern Cape security branch at the time, told the TRC’s amnesty committee in 1998 that he had planned the operation, and believed it was the right thing to do. Janse Van Rensburg said he was surprised to hear other government officials in Pretoria, including the State Security Council, were considering reappointing Goniwe. Janse van Rensburg said he would have voted to eliminate Goniwe. Nic Janse Van Rensburg also quoted statements made by political leaders at the time, including president PW Botha and defence minister Magnus Malan, to the effect that "we must fight fire with fire" and "we are facing a total onslaught". Janse Van Rensburg said he, Du Plessis and Van Zyl had identified Goniwe and other UDF leaders as being behind the unrest in the region.

Van Rensburg admitted to trying to make the murders look like the work of vigilante groups or rival political groups such as the Azanian People's Organisation. He insisted the order to kill the activists came from his superior, Harold Snyman, who in turn received instructions from higher up. Snyman did not attend the hearings as he was receiving treatment for cancer (which later killed him).

Advocate George Bizos, for the families, said it appeared from documents produced at the hearing that one arm of the state regarded Goniwe's reappointment as a way to curtail unrest in the Cradock area, while the other was planning to kill him.

Nelson Mandela, when he visited their gravesite of Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli at the 10th anniversary of their death, said: “The death of these gallant freedom fighters marked a turning point in the history of our struggle. No longer could the regime govern in the old way. They were the true heroes of the struggle."

The Cradock Four

Martyrs of The Struggle – Murdered by the Security Forces in 1985

Their noble ideals betrayed by the SACP and ANC government

Matthew with some of his pupils in Cradock. He was a popular teacher, both with the children and their parents, and the community.