MEDIA ALERT

To: All Media

ATT: News Editors, Human Rights Reporters

For Immediate Release

NPA closes Criminal Investigation into the Highgate Hotel Massacre 

Joint press release by the Highgate Massacre Survivors and Family Members and the Foundation for Human Rights

The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the ‘Hawks’) has informed the Highgate Massacre survivors and family members that they have exhausted all avenues without finding further evidence and are therefore closing their investigation.

This comes after the inquest in December 2025, presided over by Judge Denzil Potgieter, found that the attack amounted to premeditated murder and had more than likely been a “false flag” operation, possibly involving a covert renegade SADF group known as the Hammer Unit. No assailants were identified, and therefore no prosecutions could take place. However Judge Potgieter remitted the matter to Hawks and the NPA to investigate certain leads which had emerged during the inquest. These leads pertained to an individual who, it transpired, had been at the Highgate Hotel on the night of the massacre and had been shot, but had not previously been investigated.

The NPA has now informed the survivors and family members that these leads have been followed but that no fresh evidence has been brought to light. They have advised that the docket remains open and the investigation could be reinitiated if new information or evidence is revealed.

The survivors and family members continue to seek answers.  “Something just doesn’t sound right to me. They are leaving us with lots of questions,” was Highgate survivor Neville Beling’s response to this announcement. Karl Weber, also a survivor of the attack, agreed, saying, “This doesn’t make sense to us, a decision like this, after all these years of waiting for the inquest and for the truth to come out.”

Lyndene Page, whose brother was shot and killed in the attack, said “I feel we are once again being let down by the NPA… They should be assisting us in any way they can.”

The Foundation for Human Rights’ Unfinished Business of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Programme has been working closely with the survivors and family members of the 1993 Highgate Massacre in which five people were killed and seven people were injured. With the support of FHR and pro bono assistance to the survivors and family members from law firm Cliffe Dekker Hoffmehr, the first ever inquest was held in the East London High Court last year.

FHR will continue to work with  Karl Weber, Neville Beling and Lyndene Page as part of broader litigation, advocacy and memorialisation efforts. Notably, Weber, Page and Beling are part of the Calata Group in the Constitutional Damages Litigation against the government, NPA and SAPS, which alleges the violation of the rights of victims and survivors due to the failure to investigate and prosecute TRC Cases. The Calata Group is also participating  in the TRC Cases Inquiry, which is investigating the alleged suppression of TRC cases.

The survivors and family members are profoundly grateful to FHR and their legal team for their support and outstanding work on the inquest. They remain firmly resolved to keep searching for truth and justice.

For media queries:

Theresa Edlmann, t.edlmann@gmail.com, 082 552 0190

Jessie Waldman, Foundation for Human Rights, at j.waldman@fhr.org.za or 0786448258