Other Cases

This case relates to the disappearance and murder of the ‘PEBCO Three’, namely: Sipho Charles Hashe, Qaqawuli Godolozi and Champion Galela, who were leaders of the Blacks Civics Organisation (PEBCO). This organisation was affiliated with the United Democratic Front (UDM), which in turn was aligned to the African National Congress (ANC), both banned organisations during apartheid. The three men were abducted at Port Elizabeth airport on 8 May 1985 and subsequently murdered near Cradock on a farm known as Post Chalmers. The TRC granted amnesty to Harold Snyman and Kimani Peter Mogoai for conspiring and ordering the abduction and murder, however, other perpetrators implicated in the case were refused amnesty.

 

In 2004, Gideon Nieuwoudt (who died a year later), Johannes Martin van Zyl, and Johannes Koole were charged with the abduction, assault, and murder of the PEBCO Three. This was the first case that the Priority Crimes Litigation Unit (PCLU) of the NPA had pursued in respect of perpetrators who had been refused amnesty. However, shortly after their bail hearings in 2004, Nieuwoudt and van Zyl applied to the High Court for a review of the Amnesty Committee’s decision. The Court ruled that another amnesty committee should be convened to rehear the application. As a result, the case was provisionally withdrawn against the security police officers. The NPA submitted that the prosecution could not proceed pending the amnesty decision. The amnesty committee was never reconvened, and the case has effectively stalled.

Caiphus Nyoka was a student activist and a member of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS). On 24 August 1987, he was shot dead in the early hours of the morning at his home in Daveyton. His murder had followed frequent police raids on his family home in the preceding months. At the time of his death, the policemen responsible claimed that they had shot him in self-defence. Nyoku had been shot 12 times. An inquest into his death was held in October 1988. This inquest court ruled that the police had in fact acted in self-defence, despite family members asserting that Nyoka did not have a weapon. Nyoka’s sister, Alegria Nyoka appeared before the TRC in 1997 demanding an investigation into his killing. In late 2019, former security branch officer, Johan Marais, confessed to a Rapport journalist that he had killed Nyoka in cold blood more than 30 years ago.

Eustice ‘Bimbo’ Madikela, Ntshingo Matabane, Fanyana Nhlapo and Zandisile Musi (collectively known as the COSAS 4) were members of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), an organisation associated with the then banned African National Congress (ANC).

 

Tlhomedi Ephraim Mfalapitsa was a former member of Umkhonto weSizwe (MK), the military branch of the ANC. However, he later became a Security Branch officer in the South African Police (SAP), turning ‘askari’. Before his defection from the ANC, Mfalapitsa had enjoyed a close relationship with Musi’s brothers, who had served with him in MK, while the men were in exile. After Mfalapitsa joined the SAP, he established contact with Musi. The latter explored the possibility of leaving the country with Mfalapitsa, whom he erroneously believed to be a member of MK.

 

Mfalapitsa reported their discussions to his superiors, who ordered him to lure Musi and the others to a pump house at a mine near Krugersdorp, under the guise of giving them military training. On or about 15 February 1982, Madikela, Matabane, and Nhlapo were killed, and Musi was seriously injured in an explosion. The incident occurred under circumstances aimed at creating the false impression that the men had accidentally blown themselves up while undergoing military training.

 

The murders were covered up by the Security Branch and remained concealed until certain of the perpetrators applied for amnesty before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

 

The families were told by the police that the COSAS 4 had blown themselves up.

 

The actual cause of their deaths was revealed only at the TRC in May 1999 when former Security Branch officers Carel Coetzee, Willem Frederick Schoon, Abraham Grobbelaar, Christiaan Siebert Rorich and the Askari, Mfalapitsa applied for amnesty. They were denied amnesty and the case was referred to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for further investigation and prosecution. The COSAS 4 case was one of the approximately 400 apartheid era cases suppressed through political interference.

 

On 2 September 2020, the Pro-Bono Department of Webber Wentzel filed an application on behalf of Maide Selebi (sister of Eustice Madikele) and Patience Nhlapo (cousin of Fanyana Nhlapo), which sought an order from the Krugersdorp Magistrate Court requiring the Mogale City Local Municipality, with the support of the SAPS and the NPA’s Missing Persons Task Unit, to exhume the bodies of the deceased.

 

After decades of delay, former Askari, Tlhomedi Ephraim Mfalapitsa, and Security Branch explosives expert, Christiaan Sebert Rorich, were charged with kidnapping and murder in August 2021.  In November 2021, charges of crimes against humanity of murder and the crime against humanity of Apartheid were added to the indictment.

 

Since the indictment was issued the trial has been delayed by the refusal of SAPS to pay the legal defence fees of Rorich.  Rorich’s legal team indicated that they will bring an application to review the refusal of the SAPS.  Such legal proceedings could delay the criminal trial for several years, during which time the accused, who are elderly, may pass away.

 

On 25 March 2022, the presiding officer in the COSAS 4 case, Judge Mokgoatlheng, heard legal argument on the question of whether to invoke his inherent powers to safeguard the interests of justice, in terms of section 173 of the Constitution, to order the SAPS to pay the reasonable legal costs of the second accused, Christiaan Sebert Rorich. In the arguments, the legal representatives of the Cosas Four families pointed out to the SAPS, as well as to the Court, that the police are bound by the judgment in Willem Helm Johannes Coetzee & Others v Minister of Police & Others, Gauteng Division, Case No. 72747/2016, which set aside the decision of the SAPS not to fund the legal defence of Willem Coetzee, Anton Pretorius and Frederick Mong.

 

On the 4 May 2022, the Judge delivered the judgment on the legal costs question in the COSAS 4 matter and ordered the SAPS to pay the reasonable costs of the accused in the matter and to notify him about the decision by 24 May 2022. However, SAPS has failed to pay the legal costs in spite of the court’s order. 

 

Since the court appearance on May 14, 2024, when the lawyers for Rorich and Mfalapitsa requested yet another postponement of the long-delayed trial, the case has undergone extensive judicial management overseen by Judge Dario Dosio and Deputy Judge President Sutherland of the Gauteng High Court.

 

This case management became necessary after multiple applications by Rorich’s attorney, Mr. Kobus Muller, and Mfalapitsa’s attorney, Mr. Innocent Mthembu, throughout 2023 and 2024, each intended to delay the trial’s commencement.

 

Mr Mfalapitsa launched the civil review of his 2001 amnesty decision on 14 July 2023, on the eve of the criminal trial, which was set down for hearing from 21 August to 1 September 2023.

 

On 8 May 2024, Rorich lodged his objection in terms of s 85(1) of the CPA to the crimes against humanity charges before the criminal court.  On the same day Rorich launched a civil application before the criminal court for a declarator on the same question, together with interdictory relief.

 

Following extensive case management meetings, Judges Dosio and Sutherland, ordered that:

• Mfalapitsa’s review application of the TRC’s amnesty decision shall be heard on 14 – 18 October 2024.
• Rorich’s civil application seeking declaratory and interdictory relief shall be withdrawn and removed from the roll;
• The criminal trial will commence on the 20^th of November 2024, “the date for this trial is fixed” and no postponement may be entertained on grounds that “include the convenience of counsel or the availability of preferred counsel.”
• Rorich’s objection in terms of s85(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1977 challenging the international charges, shall be heard at the commencement of the criminal trial; and
• Any interested party, may apply to the criminal trial court for permission to be admitted as an amicus in the preliminary hearing to determine the s85(1) objection.

 

On 26 September 2024,  the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) acting on behalf of the COSAS 4 families, served an application to intervene as amicus curiae in the s85(1) objection proceedings.

 

On the 18^th of October 2024, Mfalapitsa’s TRC review application was heard before Judge Wilson. The families of the COSAS 4 intervened in this application and argued for the dismissal of the application.

 

On 11 November 2024, Judge Wilson delivered the judgment and dismissed Mfalapitsa’s application to overturn the 2001 refusal of his amnesty request and replace it with a decision to grant him amnesty. In reaching this decision, the court elected to address the merits of Mfalapitsa’s application despite the substantial delay in its submission. The court upheld the TRC Amnesty Committee’s decision that the murders of the COSAS Four were not proportionate to the political objectives claimed by Mfalapitsa. It was Mfalapitsa who told the boys that he would train them, escalated the COSAS 4 into a position of perceived threat, and thus created the very justification for their murder.

 

On 14 April 2025, Judge Dosio delivered a judgment and dismissed objections to the charges of crimes against humanity in the COSAS 4 matter. The accused objected to the crimes against humanity charges on the basis that these crimes had prescribed under section 18(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act, which provides for a statute of limitations.  

Judge Dosio’s ruling affirmed that: 

1. Customary international law forms part of South African law. It is directly applicable and does not require separate legislative enactment to be enforced domestically.  
2. The state has an obligation to investigate and prosecute international crimes committed in the South, both before and after 1994. In addition to the relevant treaties ratified by South Africa, section 232 of the Constitution provides an independent legal basis for the State to fulfil these obligations.  
3. Apartheid as a crime against humanity is prohibited under customary international law and can be prosecuted as such in South African courts.  
4. Charges of crimes against humanity brought under section 232 of the Constitution do not violate the principles of legality and non-retroactivity, as the specific crimes in question—namely kidnapping, murder, and apartheid—had already formed part of customary international law by the time the COSAS 4 were murdered in 1982. 
5. The non-prescription of crimes against humanity and war crimes constitutes a peremptory norm under international law and applies to serious international crimes committed in South Africa before and after 1994.  

 

Resources and legal papers

 

The TRC’s Human Rights Violation hearing on the murder of the COSAS 4 can be viewed on this link.

 

A full set of the legal papers filed with the Magistrate’s Court in September 2020 can be viewed on this link.

 

The court order (18 January 2022) by MOKGOATLHENG J on the legal costs question in the COSAS 4 can be viewed on this link.

 

Legal Argument ( 25 March 2022) on behalf of the Nhlapo & Madikela Families (legal costs) can be viewed on this link.

 

The court order (4 May 2022) by MOKGOATLHENG J on the legal costs question in the COSAS 4 case can be viewed on this link.

 

The judgment (4 May 2022) by MOKGOATLHENG J on the legal costs question in the COSAS 4 case can be viewed on this link.

 

The application for leave to appeal by the Minister of Police (16 August 2022) – the legal costs question can be viewed on this link.

 

The application for condonation by the Minister of Police (16 August 2022) – the legal costs question can be viewed on this link.

 

The application of Ms Selebi (29 August 2022) to intervene as a respondent and to oppose applications of the Minister of Police can be viewed on this link.

 

The court order (13 January 2023) by MOKGOATLHENG J on the legal cost question can be viewed on this link.

 

The judgment (11 November 2024) by WILSON SDJ on Mfalapitsa’s application to overturn the 2001 refusal of his amnesty request can be viewed on this link. 

 

The legal papers filed in Mfalapitsa’s civil review application of the 2001 amnesty decision can be viewed on this link.

 

The court papers related to Rorich’s objection to the international charges under section 85(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) can be viewed on this link.

 

The judgment (14 April 2025) by DOSIO J on the international charges under section 85(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) can be viewed on this link.

This case concerns the murder on 1 March 1991 of Adriaano Louis Bambo, an informer who had worked for the Security Police. Bambo had been implicated in acts of armed robbery and was on the point of disclosing sensitive information about the Security Police and their activities. At the time of his death, he was no longer a member of the police force. Eugen De Kock, the Operational Commander of ‘Vlakplaas’, the South African Security Police Special Unit, disclosed before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Amnesty Committee that, in compliance with his superior’s order (referring to Krappies Engelbrecht), he had instructed members of his Vlakplaas to create a false cache of weapons in order to frame Bambo. The plan involved taking Bambo to the place where the cache was located, and then shooting him there under the pretext that he had tried to escape. Subsequently, Bambo was murdered in Nelspruit, as planned. De Kock, Dawid ‘Duiwel’ Brits and Daniel Lionel Snyman applied for amnesty before the Amnesty Committee, which was granted. However, a number of other individuals implicated in Bambo’s murder have never applied for amnesty.

On 1 May 1993 masked gunmen attacked the Highgate Hotel outside East London with automatic rifles and hand grenades. On the day, Deric Whitfield, Stan Hacking, Deon Wayne Harris, Dave Wheeler, and Douglas Gates were killed, and seven others were injured. Initially, it was suspected that the military wing of the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA) had conducted the attack, especially as it had claimed responsibility for other attacks earlier, including on the Queenstown Spur, Fort Beaufort’s Yellowwood Hotel and the King Williamstown Golf Club. However, the APLA publicly refuted responsibility for the Highgate attack, and did not apply for amnesty before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Amnesty Committee. Moreover, evidence suggests that the modus operandi used during the attack was inconsistent with the APLA’s.

Welcome Khanyile was a member of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), then a banned organisation. Khanyile died during an interrogation by members of the South African Police at or near Heidelberg, in the former Transvaal, during August 1992. After being detained for suspicion of murder, he was interrogated and likely tortured in the back seat of a taxi. Khanyile allegedly died during this interrogation. The Security Branch covered up the murder by disposing of the body, which was then blown up with explosives. The police gave the impression that Khanyile had blown himself up accidentally. No one applied for amnesty in this matter.

Ramatha Nicholas ‘Boytjie’ Thlapi was suspected of being an anti-apartheid activist. Together with a friend, he was arrested on 20 March 1986, at Stilfontein in the North West Province – formerly known as the Western Transvaal – and detained under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act. He was presumably tortured, then murdered, and his body was disposed of. Since his disappearance, his family has been continuously searching for the truth concerning his whereabouts. Thlapi’s father, James Barileng Thlapi, testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Human Rights Violations Committee on 29 September 1989. To date, neither Thlapi nor his remains have been found.

The available information indicates that Ignatius ‘Iggy’ Mthebule was a student activist associated with the then banned Azanian Student Organisation (AZASO) in 1975. Samuel Mthebule, Iggy Mthebule’s brother, testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that Iggy had been expelled from university in 1976, and had gone into exile in about 1981. He then allegedly returned to South Africa and became an underground African National Congress (ANC) operative in Johannesburg. The ANC was also a banned organisation at the time. In 1987, Mthebule’s unit was allegedly infiltrated by apartheid agent Joy Harden, who lured him to a restaurant in Hillbrow and identified him to the Security Branch of the South African Police as an underground operative. It was the last time Mthebule would be seen alive. To date his whereabouts remain unknown.

Matthews Mabelane was arrested and detained by the Security Branch at Zeerust while attempting to leave South Africa for Botswana. In January 1977, Matthews’ parents were informed by the police that he had been detained at John Vorster Square. On 16 February, they were further informed that their son had fallen from the 10^th floor, following 23 days of detention. The police claimed that he had jumped out of the window during the interrogation. Magistrate Dormehl, who presided over the inquest into Mabelane’s death in 1977, found that his death was accidental and that no one was to blame.

Peter Thabuleka was a known Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) operative in Mamelodi. The MK was the armed branch of the then banned African National Congress (ANC). In 1988, during a South African Police (SAP) operation in Mamelodi, Thabuleka was mistaken for another MK operative, ‘Bomber’. Thabuleka was kidnapped and taken to police headquarters.  During his interrogation, Thabuleka was tortured to obtain information on the whereabouts of other MK members. His whereabouts has never been revealed.

Ntombikayise Khubeka was a member of the then banned African National Congress (ANC) and an operative responsible for coordinating between the internal and external units of the ANC, as well as other underground activities. The Security Branch regarded her as a senior ANC member and the leader of the KwaMashu ANC cell. She was befriended by two askaris (former ANC members turned police) from Vlakplaas. Having gained her trust, these askaris lured her to the Durban Beach Front, where she was kidnapped by the Port Natal Security Branch. She was driven to the Winkelspruit Army Shooting Range, interrogated, and tortured. She allegedly died during the interrogation, and the Security Branch dumped her body in the vicinity of her home in Bhambhai, north of Durban.

Nicodemus Kgoathe was a supporter of the then banned Pan African Congress (PAC). He was arrested in 1968 with 17 others while protesting against the appointment of a new headman. He was detained under the Terrorism Act for 180 days without trial at Silverton police station, in Pretoria. On 4 February 1969, he died as a result of torture by members of the Security Police. The police claimed that Kgoathe had slipped on a bar of soap. The magistrate presiding over the inquest, CG Jordan, found that he was unable to conclude who was responsible for Kgoathe’s death, based on the available evidence.