Today marks 38 years since MK commander Ashley Kriel was killed at a safe house in Hazendal (Athlone) by Security Brance police officer Jeff Benzien. Jeff claimed Kriel took out a gun which lead to him being shot in the back, this claim was disputed by David Klatzow the forensic expert to the inquest of Kriel’s death in 1989.

Hamba Kahle Boeta Kriel.

According to his sister’s testimony at the TRC, witnesses including a next door house’s maid and Imtiaz Ismail who lived at the safe house explained scenes of Ashley being tortured, his head gashed and his throat being slit before being shot.

Jeff was granted amnesty at the TRC, he died of cancer in 2024.

The apartheid state placed restrictions on Ashley’s funeral – the masses of mourners, Ashley’s coffin and comrades were met with tear gas canisters on the burial day – political militants in apartheid SA were knows for utilising funerals to galvanise resistance against the state.

‘we will beat the struggle, but it’s not the struggle… the first struggle is against the apartheid regime, that we’ll win easy, but the second struggle we are fighting is the struggle within the struggle, the struggle amongst ourselves.’ – Ashley Kriel

Join us for special tribute event on Friday 11 July at the Castle of Good Hope from 5pm till late. Esteemed guest speakers from the 70s and 80s will unpack some of the layers to Ashley’s ideals, purpose and praxis.

In Ashley Kriel’s name we will continue to subvert the status quo, we will continue to resist the hegemonic neoliberal superstructure, we will continue to conscientise the ghetto-the workers-the grassroots-the masses-the youth, we will continue direct contemporary liberation movements by evoking the spirit of Kriel and all other martyrs.