Lieutenant Colonel Petrus Beukman, the investigating officer in the case against three former apartheid-era police officers accused of murdering Daveyton student activist Caiphus Nyoka, testified in court on Wednesday about how he tracked down the accused decades after the alleged crime.

Benoni City Times reports that Beukman took the stand in the Pretoria High Court, sitting at the Benoni Magistrate’s Court, in the trial of Leon Louis van den Berg, Abram Hercules Engelbrecht, and Pieter Stander.

The trio face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, murder, and defeating the ends of justice. They have all pleaded not guilty.

Their co-accused, Johan Marais, who pleaded guilty to the murder and was convicted in November at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, is awaiting sentencing.

Nyoka, a leader of the Congress of South African Students in Daveyton and a co-ordinator for Transco East Rand, was fatally shot on August 24, 1987.

He was allegedly targeted by a police unit established to combat ‘terrorism’ during apartheid.

Testimony

During Beukman’s testimony, he said he traced the inquest docket to the Springs SAPS and then went to Daveyton SAPS but had no luck.

He decided to visit the crime scene, Nyoka’s home in Daveyton, where he left a note after finding no one at home.

“I went to see Nyoka’s sister, Alegria, in Springs and told her I’m the new investigating officer in the case. I asked if she could assist with information about the investigation, and she brought a brown envelope that contained documents from the Human Rights Foundation and her statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” he said.

Beukman said this gave him some direction in his investigation.

He subsequently took statements from Alegria, her sister, her brother, and the three friends who were in the room with Nyoka when the incident occurred.

He then made contact with Engelbrecht, and they met in Germiston, where he informed him that he was a murder accused and read him his rights before taking a statement. On another day, Beukman went to Van den Berg’s house in Springs and took his statement as well.

He asked Van Den Berg about Stander’s whereabouts and was told that Stander was out of the country.

“I approached the SAPS human resources management department to help me trace him,” Beukman said.

He contacted Crime Intelligence to request a profile on Stander.

It was then that he learned Stander had been moving between South Africa and Iraq, where he was working as a soldier. Beukman applied for a warrant of arrest, and in April last year, Stander was arrested upon his return at OR Tambo International Airport.

Meanwhile, the courtroom was filled with members of the ANC, civil society groups, and Nyoka’s family members.

The trial continues, with further witnesses expected to testify in the coming days.

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