Student activist Caiphus Nyoka in 1987. File Photo: Facebook/Ahmed Timol
A former apartheid police officer, Johan Marais, was on Tuesday found guilty of killing student activist Caiphus Nyoka in 1987.
This comes after the 65-year-old pleaded guilty to the murder in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
At the time, Marais was a Section Leader of the Reaction Unit 6 in Dunnottar, Springs.
When he was killed, Nyoka was part of several organisations which he used to publicly challenge apartheid policies.
Amongst others, he was a student activist and a member of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) and was president of the Student Representative Council (SRC) at Mabuya High School.
He was fatally shot nine times on August 24, 1987 in Daveyton, Springs.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said Marais and some of the members of the security branch and other units within the South African Police Service (SAPS), met prior to discuss a plan to kill Nyoka.
Mahanjana said a plan to raid Nyoka’s was devised, under the then commanding officer Major Leon Louis van den Berg, who also been charge separately.
“In the early hours of 24 August 1987, Marais, together with Sergeant Pieter Stander, Sergeant Abram Hercules Engelbrecht and other members of the Reaction Unit who are also charged separately, arrived at Nyoka’s homestead and stormed into Nyoka's room.
“They found him with three of his friends sleeping. After identifying him, they removed the friends from the room and thereafter proceeded to shoot him nine times. He died on the scene as a result of multiple gunshot wounds,” said Mahanjana.
Marais was released on R5,000 bail with conditions that he does not interfere with state witnesses and that he doesn’t communicate with the other three accused.
He was also ordered not to leave the jurisdiction of Springs without informing the investigating officer, and he should hand in his passport to the investigating officer and not apply for a new one.
The matter was postponed to 27 January 2025 for a psychological report.
The trial against Marais’s co-accused is expected to be heard from November 18 - December 6, 2024.
sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za
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