Mxolisi Johannes “Dicky” Jacobs

Mxolisi Johannes “Dicky” Jacobs was a United Democratic Front (UDF)-aligned youth activist from Upington in the Northern Cape. He became politically active through youth structures associated with the UDF, at a time when young people across the country were increasingly at the forefront of resistance to apartheid. 

Jacobs was described by his fellow political detainee Mawushe Selby Nomganga as a highly intellectual and politically astute person, who understood the nuances of the political positions of the UDF and the African National Congress (ANC). His aunt, Matilda Nonzame Jacobs, described how he had been preparing for his matric exams while in detention and had even been accepted to study further: “He was very studious, and he wanted to study further. He told me that he had made application to go to Durban  Westville University and that if the forms arrived at home, I should bring them to prison so he could see if he had been admitted.”  

Jacobs is remembered as one of the many young activists whose lives were lost in detention during the State of Emergency, and whose deaths remain deeply contested in the historical record of apartheid-era repression. 

Mxolisi Johannes “Dicky” Jacobs was a committed youth activist aligned with the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Upington, Northern Cape. Born into a time of escalating repression, he became a visible critic of apartheid policies and mobilised young people in resistance campaigns. He was arrested by the Security Branch in June 1986 during a pre–June 16 crackdown and detained under the State of Emergency for 129 days at Upington Prison, during a time marked by widespread mass arrests and the suspension of basic legal protections for political detainees. Many young activists during this period were tortured by the security police in Upington. During his detention, Mxolisi was kept in solitary confinement in the white section of the prison and was not permitted visits by his family, legal team or any independent institution except for visits by the Security Police. His brother Bonakele Jacobs and fellow political activist Mawushe Selby Nomganga were also detained in solitary confinement in the prison’s white section. Meanwhile, other political activists detained in communal cells in the black section at Upington Prison held a hunger strike in protest of their detention without trial.  

Mxolisi’s aunt, Matilda Nonzame Jacobs, recalled how, just days before his death, a Security Branch officer chillingly warned her: “I don’t think you are ever going to see Dicky Jacobs again.” 

On 22 October 1986, Jacobs was allegedly found hanging in his cell at Upington prison. His family were informed that he had committed suicide by hanging. This version of events was questioned by fellow detainees and by his family, who challenged the circumstances surrounding his death. 

The Jacobs family were called to the police station to view Mxolisi’s body. His grandfather, Johannes Jacobs, gave evidence to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that “When we saw the corpse, we looked at the neck time and time again and there was just no evidence that he had hung himself. The T-shirt they said he had used to hang himself was lying next to him. His mouth was closed, his lips pursed together like someone who had just died.”  

These doubts were shared by Jacobs’ aunt, Josephine Nolulama Plesssie, who recalled how they were blocked from properly viewing the body: “We knew it was our right to see the body because they said he had hanged himself. But Basson [a prison officer] refused. When I looked through a small window, I saw a red spot on his neck. I said to myself, yes, that is why they won’t allow us to see him—he didn’t hang himself.” 

The Jacobs family asked to see the cell where he had died; however, the police refused to show them. Bonakele Jacobs, Mxolisi’s brother, was refused his request to attend his brother’s burial, and remained in detention until 13 November 1986.  

Although the prison warder witnesses have confirmed that an inquest took place in 1987, Upington Magistrates Court has confirmed that it does not hold any record of the inquest, nor is it reflected in the court’s registers.  

An article in the Mail and Guardian on 27 March 1987 reports on the evidence heard at the inquest, which apparently took place before an LJ Brandt. The article suggests that a prison officer by the name of Pienaar was present outside of Jacobs’ cell door and saw him attempting to hang himself. Pienaar apparently testified that he pleaded with Jacobs not to do it, but that Jacobs successfully managed to hang himself on his second attempt. According to the article, Pienaar stated that he took fifteen to twenty minutes locate the master key to open the cell door by which time Jacobs was non-responsive and deceased. No nurses or doctors were called to the scene. Bonakele Jacobs, Mxolisi’s brother, who was also detained in a cell next to him in the same section of the prison at the time, believes it may have taken much longer to open the cell door – up to four hours. The Jacobs family were not informed of the inquest. When they asked an attorney to follow up to ascertain the outcome of the inquest, they were informed that all relevant documents had been destroyed. 

The Jacobs family testified to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), expressing their concerns about the true circumstances surrounding Mxolisi’s death. The TRC was unable to identify any police, prison or inquest records pertaining to the death. The TRC’s investigation team later confirmed that official records relating to political unrest cases at Upington from 1985 to 1993 had “disappeared” despite orders that they be preserved. Oupa Links, a black police officer who had visited that Jacobs family to inform them of Mxolisi’s death, testified that these records had been intentionally destroyed by the police to avoid scrutiny by the TRC. 

The TRC found that the police categorised Jacobs’ death as a “suicide”; however, the TRC Final Report noted that: 

“Fellow detainees said that Jacobs had been strong and in good spirits when they last saw him seven hours before his death. His aunt said that she could not accept the circumstances of his death.”  

The TRC also emphasised that due to the extent of physical and psychological torture to which political detainees were subjected, the government and security forces should be held responsible even in cases where it could be proven that political detainees had taken their own lives.  

The unresolved nature of Jacobs’s case highlights the wider pattern of deaths in detention during apartheid. Families like the Jacobs’ were left without truth or justice, forced to live with unanswered questions. As his grandfather put it at the TRC: “It is a very painful thing to lose a son and a brother. He died under very strange circumstances, and there was no satisfactory explanation for his death.” 

In 2022, the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) requested the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority to initiate a new investigation into Dicky’s death. Despite repeated efforts to access the inquest docket and police and prison records, all except for the admission record to Upington Prison could not be located.  

The case is currently under consideration by the NPA, which must decide what further action to take. Possibilities include closing the matter without taking any further steps, re-opening the inquest, or instituting a prosecution. 

Brother Bonakele Jacobs, supported by the Foundation for Human Rights, is pursuing accountability. In 2025, he became an applicant in the constitutional damages litigation brought forward by twenty-five survivors and families of victims who were forcibly disappeared or killed during South Africa’s fight for democracy. The families have filed a court application against the President and the government seeking constitutional damages for the political suppression of the apartheid-era cases referred to the National Prosecuting Authority following the TRC. Jacobs’ story continues to resonate as a symbol of the human cost of apartheid-era detention and the ongoing struggle for justice and accountability in post-apartheid South Africa.