Ex-police officer pleads guilty to killing activist in 1987 TRC case

The Pretoria high court on Tuesday found the former section leader of the South African Police response unit guilty of murdering student activist Caiphus Nyoka in the 1980s.

Johan Marais, 65, of Unit 6 in Dunnottar in Ekurhuleni, pleaded guilty to murdering Nyoka in 1987.

This is one of the cases referred to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. At the time of her murder in 1987, Nyoka was a student activist at Daveyton and a member of the Congress of South African Students.

He was also the South African Youth Congress organizer of the Transvaal Student Congress on the East Rand, as well as chairman of the Mabuya Secondary School student representative council.

“He was against apartheid policies, which he used to publicly challenge,” said NPA spokeswoman Lumka Mahanjana.

He said that on the evening of August 23, 1987, Marais and members of the security branch and other units of the SAP met to discuss a plan to kill Nyoka.

A plan to raid his home was devised by the then commander, Major Leon Louis van den Berg, who was also seconded separately.

“In the early hours of August 24, 1987, at around 2.30 am, Marais, together with Sergeant Pieter Stander, Sergeant Abram Hercules Engelbrecht and other members of the reaction unit, also assigned separately, arrived at Nyoka’s farm and raided her room.

“They found him sleeping with his three friends. After identifying him, they took his friends out of the room and then started shooting him nine times. He died at the scene.”

After the chargesheet was registered on Tuesday, Marais was released on bail of Rs 5,000 on the condition that he not interfere with state witnesses and not communicate with the other three accused.

He was ordered not to leave Springs without notifying the investigating officer and was told to surrender his passport to the investigating officer.

The matter was postponed to January 27, 2025 for a psychological report.

The trial of three other defendants in the matter will begin in the Pretoria high court in Benoni from November 18 to December 6.

“The NPA welcomes this conviction, which reflects its commitment to ensuring accountability for the egregious crimes referred to the NPA by the TRC,” Mahanjana said.

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