Benoni court postpones case of 4 apartheid cops accused of murder

One of four former apartheid-era police officers currently facing murder charges in a high court sitting in Benoni was released on R350 000 bail and can travel back to Iraq, where he works as a private military contractor.

During his court appearance yesterday, he was also granted a request to have the trial postponed to allow his lawyers to prepare his defence.

Pieter Stander and his three co-accused: Johan Marais, Leon Louis van den Berg and Abram Hercules Engelbrecht are accused of murdering anti-apartheid student activist Caiphus Nyoka at his Daveyton home 37 years ago.

Nyoka, who was a prominent leader of the Congress of South African Students in Daveyton and the co-ordinator for Transco East Rand, was fatally shot on August 24, 1987, by members of a police unit allegedly established to ‘deal with terrorism’.

The accused face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, murder and defeating the ends of justice.

Marais, Van den Berg and Engelbrecht were indicted in the Gauteng Division of the High Court on August 30, 2022, and after some delays the court set the trial date for April 22 to May 3.

Stander was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport on April 5 upon his return from Iraq but released on a warning on the same day, on condition that he surrender his passport to the investigating officer.

Stander formally joined his co-accused in the high court sitting in the Benoni Magistrate’s Court, on April 22.

On April 26, he filed an application to amend the conditions of his release on warning, pending the finalisation of the trial, and to postpone the start of the trial.

Latest court appearance

During court proceedings yesterday, judge Gerhardus Botha ordered that Stander’s passport be returned to him in order for him to travel to Iraq, but only in pursuance of his employment.

Stander was further ordered to pay R350 000 bail.

“Travel to any other country than Iraq for any reason other than work will be considered a breach of bail conditions. The applicant is to inform the investigating officer of the date he is about to travel abroad, each time,” said Botha, adding Stander’s application was not opposed by his co-accused but by the state.

The matter was postponed to proceed between November 18 and December 6.

Dismay at postponement

ANC members, who packed the courtroom, gathered outside after the case had been heard and expressed disappointment at the postponement.

ANC Gauteng secretary TK Nciza said: “It’s unfortunate. It is a risk to give a passport to someone who is employed in Iraq as he may not come. I hope the courts know what they are doing.

“This trial must be a public discussion, because there are many other cases like this where people have not come forward to speak the truth. Stander was not prepared to speak the truth initially, why would he hand himself over now? In 1988 they lied and spoke about self-defence. They had a chance to speak the truth at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), but they didn’t.”

The case

In 1988 and 1989 an inquest was held at the Benoni Magistrate’s Court.

Magistrate JP Myburgh ruled the police officers had acted in self-defence, despite the family leading evidence that Nyoka posed no threat to them before he was shot multiple times.

The case re-emerged more than two decades later, in 2019, when Marais confessed to a journalist that the police murdered Nyoka.

In light of the confession, the NPA was approached and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) prompted a renewed investigation.

In 1997, Nyoka’s sister, Alegria, appeared before the TRC demanding an investigation into her brother’s murder.

Although the TRC found that members of the East Rand security police ‘executed Nyoka in cold blood’, no-one applied for amnesty in this matter.

Alegria told the commission that her brother stood for equality.