EVENTS LEADING TO HIS DEATH
.   On a Monday the 24th of June 1985, Matthew telephoned the secretary of the UDF of the EAST LONDON  HEARING TRC/EASTERN CAPE
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Eastern Cape Region, Derek Swarts, informing him that he won't be coming to the usual Wednesday meeting due to other commitments, but will be coming for a briefing on the 27th of June 1985 instead. He made a second telephone on the 27th of June 1985 to confirm that he was coming.  Both conversations were taped by the security police and a transcript of these telephones was produced as evidence during the second inquest.  This confirms what we long suspected, that Matthew's movements were closely monitored for 24 hours, in fact on the day he left for Port Elizabeth, with his friends and colleagues, his movements were monitored.
 On the 27th of June 1985 he left for Port Elizabeth in the company of his friends, Fort Calata,  Sicelo Mhlawuli, and Sparrow Mkhonto and that was the last time we saw them.  They were due back on the same night and when they did not come back, we knew that something serious had happened.  Early in the morning of the next day, I telephoned the UDF offices in Port Elizabeth, I also phoned Derek Swart and Molly Blackburn, to establish their whereabouts.  Derek Swart informed me that Matthew left with his friends for Cradock the previous night of the 27th of June 1985 at about 9 pm. You can imagine the shock, and I shivered to think what might have happened to these comrades.
 I kept the news secret for a while from all the families, excepting my brother in law who was planning what to do next.  The brother in law, Alex and I, we picked up a few activists and went and looked for them.  We decided to drive towards Port Elizabeth, and on our way we stopped over at Cookhouse and Bedford police stations, to check whether they have seen them, but we drew a blank.
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 I just want to say something mysterious happened then, well not mysterious but very interesting.  As we approached the police station, of course they didn't know who we were up and till my brother in law identified himself.  Immediately their whole mood changed and all the young police officers stood on guard, just in front of the door and we asked them whether they had seen them.  And they said that the last time they saw them was a t 12 o'clock the previous day.  And that also made us to wonder, because the police station in Cook House is far from the National Road.  Something clicked, it could be through their monitoring network that they picked up that Matthew was passing by at about that time.
 A similar search party looked for them in the Port Elizabeth area with no result.  We drove as Patterson and returned back home.  On arrival at home we were informed that the police had phoned, they left a message with a child, my brother in law's son, to inform the family that Matthew's burned car had been found near the Scribanta Racing Course outside Port Elizabeth.  Immediatly we knew that something serious had happened.
 Of course we had pointers because in May, you know, the PEPCO Three had disappeared without a trace. Relatives and  the Community were informed and some members of the family had to go to Port Elizabeth to establish what had happened.  It was this group that also assisted the families to identify the bodies later on.  So I alerted the press, the national media, international media and everybody of influence to try and put pressure onto the police authorities, or the government to produce them.  Of course, during those days anything could have happened, I mean we 
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thought of detentions, whatever.
 The community immediatly embarked on a school and a shop boycott to add more pressure on to the government. n Saturday the 29th June 1985, the bodies of Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicele Mhlawuli were found first and those of Matthew and Fort were found on the 2nd of July 1985.  All the bodies had multiple stab wounds and were badly burned.  
 Our lawyers during the second inquest argued that Matthew was monitored for 24 hours, a factor that was confirmed by Winter and Snyman who was regional head of the security branch of the Eastern Cape at the town station in Port Elizabeth during cross-examination. He couldn't have slipped the police monitoring networks.  Whatever befell him on that night of the 27th was known to the police and they killed him.
 We have stated why we believe that Matthew had to die.  We think that it was because he was seen as a person who was responsible for the collapse of the community councils discipline in Lingalishle.  We also think that he was also held responsible for disrupting the schools by instigating the students to engage in school boycotts and for the resignation of all school communities in Cradock. He was also accused for mobilising the people of Cradock and the neighbouring towns under the banner of the then banned, ANC.  They hated him for raising the level of political awareness of people in the rural areas.  He was seen as a communist, a terrorist and therefore a dangerous man, who was threat to the state.