The Moroka Three: Judiciously Murdered by the Apartheid Regime
On 9 June 1983, Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) operatives, Jerry Semano Mosololi (aka “Dragon Mosepedi”), Thelle Simon Mogoerane (aka “Seiso Moletsane”) and Marcus Thabo Motaung (aka “Abbey”) were executed for their part in a hit on Wonderboompoort police station. The three MK soldiers were brought to court on charges relating to attacks on racist police stations at Orlando, Moroka and Wonderboompoort, during which four apartheid policemen were killed and a number of others injured.
When the trial first opened in the Pretoria Magistrates Court on 23 April 1982, only two men appeared in court. They were Thelle Simon Mogoerane, who was 23 years old then, and Jerry Semano Mosololi, only 25. Both were dragged barefoot into the courtroom wearing leg irons. Both refused to plead to the main charge of treason or the alternative charges of participating in “terrorist activities”, murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
When they appeared for a third time, this time in the Pretoria Supreme Court on 1 June 1982, they were accompanied by a third accused, Marcus Thabo Motaung, who was 27 years old. Motaung of the MK Transvaal Urban Machinery G-5 Unit was arrested on 1 May 1982, after being shot by his former Comrade, Lati Ntshekang, also known as “Ghost Mosotho”, who was formerly with the MK Special Operations Unit, and was later captured during the Matola Raid, in Mozambique. Lati Ronald Ntshek
