PRESS RELEASE
To: All Media
ATT: News Editors, Human Rights Reporters
For Immediate Release
5 December 2025
Landmark Judgments Delivered in the Highgate Inquest and the Caiphus Nyoka Murder Trial
Statement by the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR)
In a significant week for South Africa’s pursuit of justice for the victims of apartheid-era crimes, the High Court in East London and the High Court in Johannesburg have delivered judgments in two long-delayed cases: the 1993 Highgate Hotel massacre and the murder of student activist Caiphus Nyoka.
Highgate Inquest: Judge Finds Attack Was a “False Flag” Operation, Condemns Investigation Failures
On Monday, 1 December 2025, Judge Denzil Potgieter delivered the findings of the inquest into the Highgate Hotel attack of 1 May 1993, in which five people were killed and seven others seriously injured. After hearing evidence across four sittings in 2025, including testimony from survivors, former police officers, ballistic experts, and former APLA commander Letlapa Mphahlele. Judge Potgieter reached several key conclusions.
He found that the attack amounted to premeditated murder and had more than likely been a “false flag” operation, partly intended to falsely implicate the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA) and possibly involving a covert renegade SADF group known as the Hammer Unit. Its purpose, he concluded, was seemingly to undermine South Africa’s political transition to falsely implicate the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA).
Judge Potgieter was sharply critical of the original police investigation, describing it as “grossly substandard” and marked by “bungling, lapses, failures and neglect.” These failures included the loss of ballistic evidence, the failure to lift fingerprints, and a 32-year delay in convening an inquest.
While no individual perpetrators could be identified, the judge found that the evidence “militates against the involvement of APLA.” He recorded that the deaths were the result of premeditated murder, but noted with regret that, owing to the profound investigative shortcomings, “we are nowhere closer to complete answers more than 30 years later.”
The Highgate legal team representing survivors Neville Beling and Karl Weber, and Lyndene Page, sister of the late Deon Harris, comprised Advocates Howard Varney and Retha Richards, instructed by Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Inc. (Paige Winfield, Caitlin Freddy and Luke Kleinsmidt), with Brigadier Cliffy Marion serving as investigator.
The Highgate Inquest Judgment is available here.
Nyoka Murder Trial: Two Former Police Officers Convicted, One Acquitted
In the Johannesburg High Court, Judge Mohammed Ismail convicted on 2 December 2025 two of three former apartheid-era police officers charged with the 1987 murder of student leader Caiphus Nyoka.
Sergeant Abraham Engelbrecht and Sergeant Pieter Stander were found guilty of Nyoka’s murder, while Major Leon van den Berg was acquitted after the court concluded that the State had not proved its case against him beyond reasonable doubt.
Nyoka, aged 23, was killed in his Daveyton home in 1987. A fourth accused, Johan Marais, had already pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment in July 2025.
Following the convictions, Judge Ismail remanded Engelbrecht and Stander in custody. Their applications for bail pending sentencing will be heard on 11 December 2025.
The Nyoka family was represented by Webber Wentzel Probono Department, led by Jos Venter.
A recording of the Judgment is available here.
Media Contacts:
Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr: Paige Winfield, paige.winfield@cdhlegal.com / 082 902 6525
Webber Wentzel: Jos Venter, Jos.Venter@webberwentzel.com/ 021 431 7000
Foundation for Human Rights: Sesetu Holomisa, sholomisa@fhr.org.za/ 071 391 0043
