User:Georgina Venning

A cold-blooded murder of a woman by her fellow comrades
On the 20th of July 1985 Maki Skosana was the first of a series of victims (in South Africa) to be killed by necklacing. Necklacing was a brutal practice that occurred in townships as a result of black-on-black violence. As such Skosana's death occurred in the township of Duduza, west of Nigel on the East Rand, Gauteng. Suspected of being a police informer, Skosana was held responsible for her perceived involvement in the deaths of three youth activists'. Their deaths were masterminded by the third-force: a group of covert government operative tasked with managing township resistance.

It was because of her presumed role as a police informer that she was killed whilst attending the funeral of a fellow comrade. Ironically, she had decided to attend the ceremony even though it was the funeral of one of the people she had been implicated in killing. While it was believed that Joe Mamasela, under command from his superiors (which included Jack Cronje, Johan van der Merwe, Johan Coetzee and the then president P.W.Botha ), had planned their deaths it was because of an assumed connection to him that Skosana was believed to have been associated by default to the explosion that led to their deaths'.

One reason Skosana's death was so significant was because it was the first time that a necklacing had been caught on camera. Images of her death, which had been filmed by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) were thus "used by the apartheid state media in anti-resistance propaganda". Thus her death, being immortalised on camera, has since become iconic of the pain and suffering experienced as a result of the apartheid regime.

The graphic images of her death depict her with a tyre (doused in petrol) around her neck, which was then set alight, burning her to death. Although it was originally believed that she had an affiliation to the murderers it was not until her trial that she was proven innocent. Whence it was discovered that she had simply "been at the wrong place at the wrong time". On Skosana's behalf it was her sister, Evelina Puleng Moloko, that testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings upon which time Maki Skosana was found innocent of the accusations brought against her. The commission claimed that Skosana "was wrongly accused of being an informer and responsible for the death of the comrades in the booby-trapped hand grenade incidents".

In light of this evidence Maki Skosana and her family can be seen to have risen phoenix-like from her death "as heroes", for whom a moment of silence was dedicated during the hearing. The commission considered her a pawn of an even bigger struggle, of which she was seen as "the scapegoat for growing rage".