Revealing The Truth About Apartheid

DURBAN, South Africa - She was a fighter against the country's former apartheid regime when she disappeared in 1988, and for nine years her father clung to the hope she hadn't died.

Then, on March 10, Phila Portia Ndwandwe's skeleton was unearthed in a field in KwaZulu-Natal province. Authorities were led there by the man who killed her.

"I really thought she was still alive," father Nason Ndwandwe recalled, shaking his head.

But instead of just another tragic postscript to another South African tale of political murder, this one is being widely hailed as a case that brought some closure, understanding and reunion.

At a funeral last month for Phila, President Nelson Mandela and other dignitaries praised her fight against apartheid.

Even more important, Pila's long-lost son was there to accept her posthumous medal. Nason Ndwandwe had never seen his grandson before.

The Ndwandwe reunion is what Mandela envisioned when his government set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1995 to review the country's bloody past and grant amnesty for crimes deemed political. Through the commission's effort the fate of Phila Ndwandwe, (pronounced PEE-lah End-WAND-we) became known, the body recovered and given a proper burial.

The relatives of many other victims in the 49-year battle to end apartheid have not been so fortunate. Thousands of family members are still waiting for news of their loved ones' fate. The deadline for applying for amnesty is Saturday.

Phila, a dental student who became a commander for the secret armed wing of the African National Congress, went into exile in 1986 to neighboring Swaziland after being arrested in South Africa.

That's when Ndwandwe, a retired microbiologist for Lever Brothers, first learned his daughter was a freedom fighter.

In 1988, the family received one of her last letters, carrying news of Thabani's birth and the name of the father, Bheki Mabuza, a fellow ANC cadre.

When she didn't come back with other exiles who started returning in 1990, Nason Ndwandwe went to the truth commission to report his daughter missing.

The commissioners worked with the state's attorney to threaten prosecution against six security-branch officers who worked in KwaZulu Natal at the time six ANC cadres disappeared in 1988.

In March, the officers relented and led the commission on a grisly tour of places where they had buried, bombed or thrown into a river 12 activists. One of the stops was Phila's shallow burial site on a farm.

Late last year, the commission forgave the life sentence of former policeman Brian Mithchell convicted in 1992 for his role in the massacre of 11 people.

Phila's son, Thabani Mabuza, 9, turned up soon after his father heard about her grave and Ndwandwe's search for the boy. "I knew who he was by his smile. He looked just like his mother," said Ndwandwe.

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South Africa amnesty

-- Deadline is tomorrow for applications for amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for political crimes and human-rights abuses. -- Most of the leadership of the African National Congress, with the likely exception of President Nelson Mandela, are expected to file applications. -- Dozens of former police officers have applied, including those responsible for the death of activist Steve Biko in 1977.