47 Political Bodies Exhumed In South Africa

Report says some 130 political prisoners were hanged on the gallows of the correctional centre between 1960 and 1990.

The remains of 47 of mainly members of the Pan Africanist Congress and United Democratic Front anti-apartheid organisations had been exhumed, while 83 of them remain buried in unmarked graves.

South Africa on Wednesday commenced the exhumation of 83 political prisoners hanged at Pretoria Central Prison during the apartheid era, Justice Minister, Michael Masutha, said.

The minister said the remains would be identified and returned to their families.

The apartheid government was widely criticised for its mass executions of anti-apartheid activists, most of them black South Africans.

The last execution carried out at the prison was of Solomon Ngobeni in November 1989, who was convicted of robbing a taxi driver.

The last woman executed was Sandra Smith, convicted for murder in June of the same year.

In February 1990, President Frederik Willem de Klerk declared a moratorium on executions in the country, while the death penalty was abolished in 1995.

However, many South Africans called for the death penalty to be reinstated after a surge in violent crimes and murders in the country.