PRESS RELEASE
To: All Media
ATT: News Editors, Human Rights Reporters
For Immediate Release
09 April 2025
COSAS 4 Trial: Judgment on the Crimes Against Humanity Charges
Press Statement by the Foundation for Human Rights
Judgment on the competence of the crimes against humanity charges in the COSAS 4 case will be handed down by Judge Dosio in Court 4D of the Johannesburg High Court at 10h00 on Monday, 14 April 2025.
The judgment will carry great historical significance. In November 2021, prosecutors included crimes against humanity charges in the charge sheet against the accused. This was the first time such crimes have been included in an indictment in South Africa. Significantly, apartheid as a crime against humanity was also included in the revised indictment, making it the first anywhere in the world that such a crime has been pursued in a criminal case.
Eustice ‘Bimbo’ Madikela, Ntshingo Mataboge, Fanyana Nhlapo and Zandisile Musi were members of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) who were lured by the Security Branch to a pumphouse near Krugersdorp on 15 February 1982. The police had rigged the pumphouse with explosives, which they detonated once the four were inside. All were killed except for Musi, who was seriously injured and has since died.
Both accused, Christiaan Siebert Rorich, a former Security Branch explosives expert, and Tlhomedi Ephraim Mfalapitsa, a former askari, face charges of kidnapping, murder as a crime against humanity (read with section 232 of the Constitution), alternatively murder (read with sections 91, 92 and 258 of the Criminal Procedure Act) and apartheid as a crime against humanity.
During 2024, Rorich lodged an objection in terms of s 85(1) of the Criminal Procedure Act to the crimes against humanity charges before the criminal court. The COSAS 4 families applied to intervene as amicus curiae in the objection proceedings. Between 19 and 21 November 2024, the families were granted leave to intervene as amicus curiae and arguments were heard on the objection.
The long-awaited trial into the 1982 kidnapping and murder of COSAS 4 is expected to commence immediately after judgment on the objection is handed down. If the objection is dismissed, the trial will commence with the crimes against humanity charges, but if the objection is upheld, the trial will proceed only in respect of the common law charges.
The case has been plagued by numerous delays since charges were brought in August 2021, largely due to disputes over the accused’s legal costs and parallel civil litigation launched by the accused. The Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) and the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) hope that this trial will proceed without further delay and bring long-awaited closure to the families of the COSAS 4.
Background on the COSAS 4 case is available here.
Media Contacts:
Foundation for Human Rights: Zaid Kimmie / Zkimmie@fhr.org.za
LRC: Moray Hathorn / moray@lrc.org.za
Background on Rorich and Mfalapitsa
Mfalapitsa is a former Askari. Rorich is a former explosives expert with the erstwhile Security Branch. Both Mfalapitsa and Rorich were denied amnesty for the murders of the COSAS Four. Jan Carel Coetzee, Brigadier Willem Frederick Schoon (who authorised the operation) and Abraham Grobbelaar were also denied amnesty but died before they could face charges.
Rorich
Rorich resigned from the police as a Lt. Colonel on 30 March 1997. He was previously commander of the Security Branch in the Middleburg and Witbank regions. He was granted amnesty for the murder of Zweli-Banzi Nyanda and Keith McFadden in Mbabane, Swaziland. He was also granted amnesty for the murder of unnamed 2 persons (one a young child) at 2 transit houses in Swaziland in 1980. Rorich planted the devices that blew up the 2 houses. He was also granted amnesty for the murder of Bongani Gaga Zondi in Swaziland in 1988. He did not apply for amnesty for his alleged role in the abduction and torture of Joe Pillay in Swaziland on 19 February 1981. He did not apply for amnesty for allegedly authorising the burning.
Mfalapitsa
Mfalapitsa joined the Security Branch’s Askari unit in November 1981. His story is told in the TRC Report. Mfalapitsa (AM 3592/96) was granted amnesty for the murder of a person known as Shorty, with the real name of Thembisile Tuku, near the FC Camp at Lusaka in Zambia during 1981. He also received amnesty for being an accessory to assaults on Disco, Ace, Wellington, Oskosh, Dadla, Dumisang, and Moyse Diyan in Lusaka from 1979 to 1982.
Background on the Crimes against Humanity charges
In respect of the crime against humanity of murder, the State alleges that the accused unlawfully and intentionally killed the deceased as part of a systematic attack or elimination of political opponents of the apartheid regime, with knowledge of that attack.
In respect of apartheid as a crime against humanity, it is alleged the accused killed the deceased as part of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination, by one racial group over other racial groups, and with the intention of maintaining that domination. It is further alleged that at all material times, the planning and execution of the abduction and murder of the COSAS Four occurred as part of a systematic attack against political opponents of the apartheid regime.
