The Pretoria high court on Tuesday found two former South African Police (SAP) sergeants, Abraham Hercules Engelbrecht, 61, and Pieter Stander, 60, guilty of the premeditated murder of student activist Caiphus Nyoka in 1987.
The court, sitting in the Johannesburg high court, acquitted former commanding officer Maj Leon Louis van den Berg, 75, of the charges.
Nyoka, a member of the Congress of South African Students, was killed in the early hours of August 24, 1987, at his home in Daveyton. According to National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana, Engelbrecht and Stander, who were members of the SAP Reaction Unit, met the night before to plan the murder.
The two, along with other unit members who are charged separately, raided Nyoka’s home.
“They found him sleeping with three of his friends. After identifying him, they removed the friends from the room and thereafter proceeded to shoot him nine times,” Mahanjana said. Nyoka died at the scene.
During the trial, the state presented five witnesses, including two of Nyoka’s sisters and Gugulakhe Exodus Nyokane, one of the three friends who was with Nyoka that night.
The court dismissed an application for discharge brought by two of the accused after the state closed its case. In handing down the judgment, the court found that the state had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt against Engelbrecht and Stander.
This conviction follows a separate case in July, where another former apartheid police officer, Johan Marais, was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment by the Pretoria high court after pleading guilty to Nyoka’s premeditated murder.
The NPA welcomed the judgment, stating, “This court outcome is encouraging as this is a right step towards providing justice for the Nyoka family.” However, the state plans to study the judgment regarding the acquittal of van den Berg.
Engelbrecht and Stander were remanded in custody following the judgment. The case was postponed until December 11 for a bail application pending their sentencing.
