Maki Skosana

Maki Skosana ( – July 20, 1985) was a South African woman who was burned to death and the footage broadcast live on apartheid-era South Africa's state-run television. She was killed by a mob of anti-apartheid activists who suspected her of being a police informant. Her death by "necklacing" elicited outrage beyond the nation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has identified Skosana as the first known victim of necklacing, although it is more likely that she was not the first such lynching, only the first filmed.

Death Maki Skosana, 24, was an unmarried factory worker and single mother to a five-year-old son.

On July 20, 1985, the 24-year-old even after apartheid was abolished in the early 1990s.

Skosana's death occurred in the township of Duduza, west of Nigel on the East Rand, Gauteng. Suspected of being an informer for the South African Police, Skosana was killed for her presumed involvement in the deaths of four youth activists who were given faulty grenades that would explode the moment the pin was removed and told to attack police houses. Their deaths were reportedly planned by the "Third Force": a supposed group of covert government operatives tasked with managing township resistance. Hundreds of people came out for the two funerals, and footage of the crowds was broadcast live on television.

It was because of her presumed role as a police informer that she was killed whilst attending the funeral of a friend, who was one of the four murdered activists.

Film footage of necklacing Television cameras captured her death on live broadcast.

Legacy Although it was originally believed that she had an affiliation to the deaths of the activists, it was not until her story was dealt with in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that it was discovered that she had simply been "at the wrong place at the wrong time."

In light of this new evidence, Skosana and her family can now be seen "as heroes", instead of traitors. A moment of silence was dedicated to them during the hearing. The commission considered her a pawn of an even bigger struggle - "the scapegoat for growing rage".