A Biography of Sacrifice and the Long Wait for Justice
Nokuthula Simelane was a young South African anti-apartheid activist whose life was brutally cut short by the apartheid regime in 1983.
Born in 1959 in Mzinoni Township near Bethal, Mpumalanga, she was a bright university student who dedicated herself to the fight for freedom. At just 23 years old, Simelane worked as a courier for MK operating between South Africa and Swaziland. On 10 September 1983, she was lured to a meeting in Johannesburg by an "aska i" MK member, where she was abducted by members of the apartheid security police.
What followed was a horrific ordeal. Simelane was taken to a police office in Norwood and later to a farm in Northam, where she was subjected to weeks of brutal torture, including severe beatings, electric hocks, and near-drownings, in an attempt to force her to betray her cause. She was last seen alive, badly injured and in handcuffs, being placed into the boot of a car driven by security branch officers. Her remains have never been found.
