Ramatua Nicholas "Boiki" Tlhapi

Ramatua Nicholas Thlapi, affectionately known as ‘Boiki’, was a young activist who disappeared under suspicious circumstances during the height of political unrest in apartheid South Africa. Boiki was born to Barileng James Tlhapi and Thalitha Makgomo Tlhapi on 22 January 1960 in Ikageng Township, Potchefstroom. He was the eldest of six children. Boiki was schooled in Nanogeng Primary School, Keagile Higher Primary and Tlokwe Secondary School. He left school when he completed form 3, the equivalent of grade 10. Boiki was a loving, caring and intelligent son and brother who was well known and respected in Ikageng. 

While the family knew that Boiki was an activist, they never participated in his political involvement. Boiki’s father was conscious of the threat that political activism posed to the family’s safety and security and tried to shield them from potential harm. Boiki became a member of the ANC Youth League. He was resolute in his fight against the apartheid government. His political involvement placed him on the radar of the security police. He was arrested on several occasions but never charged. 

On 20 March 1986, Boikie and a group of friends left their hometown of Ikageng to attend a funeral in Klerksdorp of various comrades of the Jouberton Youth Congress who were killed by the police during unrest. 

While en route, the group was stopped at a police roadblock and arrested. Boiki and several other members of the group were arrested in Jouberton and subsequently detained at the Joubert and Stilfontein Police Stations. Boiki never returned home.  

Boiki’s comrade, George Mangoeyane, who was also arrested on 20 March 1986 but released shortly thereafter, informed our father of Boiki’s arrest. George told Boiki’s father that he was viciously assaulted by the police. He saw Boiki lying motionless on the floor in the passage at the Stilfontein Police Station, bleeding from his mouth and nose. 

Boiki’s father investigated his disappearance with the assistance of Boiki’s mother’s employer, a white man from Potchefstroom whom we knew as Mr Strauss. They went to the Stilfontein Police Station to make enquiries about, but it came to nought. My father was told that the police had no record of Boiki being detained at Stilfontein Police Station; however, the police later conceded that Boiki had been arrested on 20 March 1986 but that he was released the following day. 

In 1993, a former police officer who was stationed at the Stilfontein Police Station, Constable George Mbathu, deposed an affidavit in which he revealed that he knew about Boiki’s disappearance. Mbathu stated under oath that Warrant Officer Willem Petrus Viljoen, Sergeant Itumeleng Moses Matiti and Constables Tseladimitlwa, April Tswaedi, Majaja and Tsetsi John Mano had been involved in the arrest, interrogation and torture of Boiki and his friends. He also alleged that Boiki was killed by the police and that his body had been dumped down a mine shaft near Stilfontein. Mbathu later pointed out the infamous James Shaft, which had been abandoned at the time. The James Shaft has since been closed with a large concrete seal. 

Lawyers for Human Rights, our family’s lawyers at the time, accompanied the South African Police and the Independent Board of Inquiry to James Shaft in 1993. The police lowered a camera down the shaft to establish whether there were bodies dumped in the shaft. At the time, the same police officers who were responsible for Boiki’s arrest and disappearance were the ones who investigated the shaft. The video footage revealed several shadows, but there was no conclusive proof that Boiki’s body had been dumped there. 

The family lawyers demanded a further investigation, and in 1994 an inquest docket was registered (GO 49/94) at the Klerksdorp Magistrates’ Court. Despite obtaining several statements from Boiki’s friends and the police officers who were stationed at the Stilfontein Police Station on the night of Boiki’s arrest, the Inquest Magistrate returned a finding that it could not be concluded that Boiki was deceased. It took nearly a year for the Magistrate to deliver the ruling. 

Tlhapi’s case was brought before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 1996. His father, James Barileng Tlhapi, testified before the Human Rights Violations Committee about his son’s disappearance, and the family’s desperate search for Tlhapi did not turn up any evidence. And his requests for subsequent searches were to no avail. None of the police officers involved in his arrest and detention applied for amnesty.  

The TRC’s investigation found that “facts of this particular case warrant a new investigation and possibly future prosecutions.” The TRC also established that Tlhapi was assaulted and tortured by Warrant Officer Viljoen, Sergeant Makiti and Constables Tseladimitlwa, Tshwaedi, Majaja and Mano of the Jouberton Security Branch of the South African Police (SAP). The TRC also found the Jouberton Security Branch, together with the Commissioner of Police, the Head of the Security Branch and the Minister of Law and Order, responsible for Mr Tlhapi’s disappearance. The TRC held the Jouberton Security Branch, along with the Commissioner of Police, the Head of the Security Branch, and the Minister of Law and Order, responsible for Tlhapi’s disappearance. 

Following the TRC’s findings, the case file was handed to the National Prosecuting Authority, but it remained dormant for years. The Thlapi family has steadfastly continued the quest for justice. Their unwavering commitment has led to renewed efforts to hold those responsible accountable and to finally provide closure for the family. 

In March 2017, 30 years after Boiki’s disappearance, James Barileng Tlhapi, in response to a question from a journalist, said: 

“How can I sleep at night knowing my son’s body, which was last seen battered and bloodied in some office at a police station, is possibly lying at the bottom of a disused mine shaft for the past 30 years?” 

James passed away in September 2020 at the age of 80, without knowing what happened to his son. Boiki’s mother, now 82 years old, has suffered enormously due to her son’s disappearance.  

The National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) recommended the reopening of the inquest into Tlhapi’s disappearance. On 7 November 2024, the NPA confirmed that the Minister of Justice had approved the reopening of the inquest. Subsequently, on 13 December 2024, the Minister formally requested that the Judge President of the North-West Division designate a judge to preside over the reopened inquest. This development, which is part of a broader effort to re-examine apartheid-era deaths, marks a significant step toward a resolution in the case of Ramatua Nicholas Tlhapi.