PEBCO 3

Sipho Charles Hashe 

Sipho Samuel Charles Hashe was a devoted husband to Nondyebo (Nothobile) and a loving father to Phumeza Mandisa, Nontuthuzelo, Malixole Charles and Vusumuzi Charles. Born in 1934 in Ngcabasa Village, Middledrift, Hashe was a mentor and respected community leader, who held a deep commitment to justice and the ideals of non-racialism. A former Robben Island prisoner, Hashe was involved in resistance through underground organising and political education. He played a key role during the 1976 and 1977 student uprisings and was instrumental in reviving civic structures such as the PEBCO.  

Qaqawuli Godolozi  

Qaqawuli Godolozi was a dedicated husband to Buyelwa Monica and father to Mkhontowesizwe and Nombeko Edith. Born in Durban in 1955, he spent his youth in Peddie (INgqushwa) before matriculating from Healdtown. After moving to then Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), he worked as a clerk and soon became deeply involved in community struggles through the PEBCO, later serving as its president. Known for his calm leadership and commitment to justice, Godolozi helped lead grassroots resistance that shook the apartheid regime. 

Twasile Champion Galela  

Champion Twasile Galela was born on 24 October 1947 in Korsten, Port Elizabeth. After relocating to KwaZakhele in 1957, he continued his education at Ebhongweni and Zikweni Primary Schools before attending Kwazakhele High School. In 1975, he married Nomali Rita Galela, and together they had two sons, Tebogo and Lehlohonolo, who were just two and five years old at the time of his death. Galela worked at Town Talk Furniture and was a member of the General Workers Union of South Africa. As Organising Secretary of Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation (PEBCO), he played a key role in community mobilisation before being abducted and murdered by apartheid security police in 1985. 

Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation (PEBCO) 

PEBCO was established in the late 1970s when the cost of living for the black residents of the town began to skyrocket. The rent increased by 100% and the injustices meted out on the black community of Port Elizabeth were unprecedented. On 10 October 1979, in response to the inequality imposed upon them, the black residents of then Port Elizabeth, under the banner of PEBCO, mobilised and began to protest the rising cost of living.  

PEBCO demanded equal rights for all in Port Elizabeth and objected to the discriminatory legislation put into place by the apartheid government and local authorities. They called for representation of the black community in decision-making and fought for the right of black people to purchase land under freehold title without being limited to designated areas. The Ciskei and Transkei Bantustans were created by the apartheid government. Black persons in the Eastern Cape were denied their South African citizenship and forced to become citizens of these two Bantustans. A key mandate of PEBCO was that black persons should not be allowed to have their South African citizenship revoked. They demanded that Port Elizabeth be classified as one municipality without separate municipalities for black people and white people. Their activities included boycotts, protests and stay-aways and contributed to making the black population of Port Elizabeth ungovernable. 

On 8th May 1985, Sipho Charles Hashe, Qaqawuli Godolozi and Twasile Champion Galela left their homes, in the KwaZakhele Township, to seemingly meet a prospective donor at the Hendrik Verwoerd Airport (now Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport in Gqeberha) and were not heard from or seen again. At the time of their disappearance, there was no information about their whereabouts.

It was only after the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1996 that what had transpired over a decade before, emerged.  

According to Nieuwoudt’s testimony, he intercepted a call between Sipho Hashe and his PEBCO comrade in Lusaka, Zambia. The Port Elizabeth Security Branch lured the three activists to the then Hendrik Verwoerd Airport in Port Elizabeth under the pretence that they would meet an official from the British Embassy who would provide funding for their political activities. Upon arrival at the airport, the PEBCO Three were kidnapped by Security Branch officers and a Vlakplaas unit that had been deployed to the Eastern Cape. The Port Elizabeth Security Branch transported them to the abandoned police station on Post Chalmers farm, where they were held. There, they were interrogated and tortured for extended periods before being executed.  

Van Zyl, Nieuwoudt, Lotz, Venter, and Beeslaar confessed to the Commission that the PEBCO members were drugged, killed and their bodies placed on a pile of wood and burnt with diesel and the ashes thrown into the Fish River. However, Mogoai and Koole, claimed that the PEBCO Three were abducted, tortured for an extended period before they were murdered. The testimonies given by Mogoai and Koole were a stumbling block in granting amnesty for all applicants. Of the nine individuals who applied for amnesty for their role in the kidnapping and murder, seven were denied amnesty by the TRC, who cited their failure to make full disclosure regarding the PEBCO Three case. Only Snyman and Mogoai were granted amnesty. 

In November 1997, Colonel Gideon Nieuwoudt applied to the TRC for amnesty for the kidnapping and murder of the PEBCO Three. He implicated several Port Elizabeth Security Branch operatives and the Vlakplaas unit. In total nine individuals applied for amnesty for their role in the kidnapping and murder of the PEBCO Three. 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 due to their failure to make full disclosure.

On 11 November 1997, former Security Police Officer Colonel Gideon Nieuwoudt applied to the TRC for amnesty for the kidnapping and brutal murder of the PEBCO Three. He implicated several former members of the Port Elizabeth Security Branch (PE SB) operatives and former Vlakplaas askaris. There were several individuals who applied for amnesty, including Hermanus Du Plessis, Gerhardus Johannes Lotz, Gideon Nieuwoudt and Harold Snyman, Johannes Martin van Zyl, Gerhardus Cornerlius Beeslaar, Kimani Peter Mogoai, and Johannes Koole. Van Zyl, Nieuwoudt, and Lotz were members of the PE SB and had recruited the help of Vlakplaas members who were Beeslaar, Mogoai, and Koole and Joe Mamasela. Mogoai, Koole and Mamasela were all askaris working for Vlakplaas. In their applications, the PE SB claimed that the PEBCO Three’s involvement in civil resistance against the apartheid regime, had made Port Elizabeth ungovernable. 

The wives of Champion Galela, Qaqawuli Godolozi, and Sipho Hashe. Elizabeth Hashe, Nomati Galelo, and Monica Godolozi (the widows of the PEBCO Three) testified before the TRC Human Rights Violations Committee. They urged the TRC to find out what had happened to their husbands, arguing that their wish was for the TRC to investigate where, how, and why they were killed, and moreover, to find out who had killed their husbands since their disappearance in 1985.  

The TRC amnesty hearings can be found here and here.  

In the post-apartheid era, the family members of the PEBCO Three victims have steadfastly pursued justice for their loved ones, refusing to let their sacrifices be forgotten. Their unwavering commitment to seeking accountability and closure has taken them through a labyrinthine legal process and enduring the emotional toll of revisiting painful memories. They have been at the forefront of advocating for the full disclosure of the truth, demanding accountability from those responsible, and calling for a reckoning with South Africa’s troubled past. Through their courage and determination, these family members have not only honoured the memory of the PEBCO Three but have also contributed to the broader national dialogue on reconciliation, justice, and healing in post-apartheid South Africa. Their pursuit of justice serves as a poignant reminder that the fight for a just and equitable society is a continuous journey, one that endures long after the darkest days of apartheid have passed. 

The TRC held the promise that those crimes that were not granted amnesty would be investigated and prosecuted by the policing and prosecuting authorities of the democratic government. The PEBCO 3 case was the first case that the Priority Crimes Litigation Unit (PCLU) of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) pursued in respect of perpetrators who had been refused amnesty. On 11 February 2004, Nieuwoudt, Van Zyl, and Koole were charged with the 1985 kidnapping, assault and murder of Hashe, Godolozi, and Galela. This was the first case that the Priority Crimes Litigation Unit (PCLU) of the National Prosecuting Authority (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 effectively stalled 

In August 2007, the remains of five persons were exhumed by the NPA’s Missing Persons Task Team (MTT) in Post Chalmers, Eastern Cape. The remains were believed to include the PEBCO Three, though this stands in conflict with evidence given to the TRC by the Security Branch officers involved who had claimed that the bodies were thrown into the Fish River by Nieuwoudt the following day. No DNA testing was undertaken on the remains. On 12 September 2009, the Minister of Justice formally handed over the remains to the families.  

Between 2011 and 2019, the PEBCO Three docket was held by the PCLU at the NPA’s Head Office. At that time, at least five known perpetrators implicated in the murders were still alive, however, no further investigative or prosecutorial steps were taken. In 2019, the PEBCO Three families, supported by the Foundation for Human Rights, formally requested the NPA and DPCI to reopen the case. 

On 1 December 2023, the families’ legal team handed over a detailed analysis of the evidence to the NPA, calling for criminal charges to be brought against the last three surviving suspects: former Vlakplaas members Colonel Roelof Jacobus Venter (aged 75), Warrant Officer Gerhardus Cornelius Beeslaar (aged 85), and askari Joe Mamasela (aged 70). The lawyers implored the NPA to act expeditiously, given the advanced ages of the suspects. Mr Venter died in July 2024, and Mr Beeslaar in April 2026, leaving Mr Mamasela as the only surviving perpetrator known to have been involved in the murder of the PEBCO Three. 

Further engagements followed, but it was only in the first quarter of 2025 that the NPA made it clear they would not proceed with prosecution and in July 2025 decided to proceed with an inquest instead. 

Inquest into the PEBCO Three Case 2025

Despite repeated efforts by the families’ lawyers to schedule a meeting with the NPA to obtain a decision on prosecution, such a meeting only took place in December 2024. Further engagements followed, but it was only in the first quarter of 2025 that the NPA made it clear they would not proceed with prosecution. The families accepted that, at this stage, an inquest would be the only feasible option.  

In July 2025, The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development approved the National Director of Public Prosecutions’ (NDPP) request for the holding of a joint inquest into the deaths of Hashe, Godolozi and Galela, to be held at the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court, Gqeberha. The NDPP’s request was based on the recommendations of the Eastern Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Barry Madolo.  

The first sitting of the inquest is scheduled to be heard from 12 to 16 October 2026.