Marais, one of four former police officers implicated in Nyoka’s killing, entered his plea in the High Court in Pretoria earlier this week.
His co-accused, Leon Louis Van den Berg, Abram Hercules Engelbrecht, and Pieter Stander are set to face trial next week, with proceedings scheduled to conclude by December.
The case is significant as it represents a rare admission of guilt from a former apartheid-era official, bringing long-overdue justice to a family that has waited for nearly four decades.
Nyoka’s murder, according to the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR), is one of many unresolved cases highlighted by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in the 1990s as requiring further investigation and prosecution.
The TRC was established in the 1990s to address human rights violations committed under apartheid, encouraging confessions and offering amnesty to perpetrators who fully disclosed their crimes.
However, many cases, including Nyoka’s, were left unresolved for years due to delays in prosecution and alleged state interference. Marais’s plea offers hope that justice will be served in this case, which had remained stagnant until he publicly confessed his involvement in 2019.
The Foundation for Human Rights has welcomed Marais’s guilty plea, viewing it as a milestone in the journey towards justice for apartheid-era crimes.
“This is one of the painful, unfinished stories of the TRC,” said Mosa Leteane, a Senior Project Officer with the FHR’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission programme. The TRC recommended over 300 cases for prosecution, but a significant number of them remain unaddressed due to limited resources, loss of records, and political obstacles.
In 1987, Nyoka was fatally shot in his backyard by Marais and three other officers, who initially denied their involvement. Evidence, including a pathology report, conflicted with the officers’ claims, but it took more than three decades for the case to gain momentum.
Marais’s confession in 2019 reignited the investigation, leading to the indictment of the three other accused in 2022. The upcoming trial will examine the evidence anew and present the remaining accused with the opportunity to defend their actions.
Despite Marais’s confession, Leteane notes that achieving justice for apartheid-era crimes remains challenging.
“Many records were destroyed by the security forces,” she explained, “which has made it difficult to collect evidence.”
Additionally, key witnesses and perpetrators have either passed away or become unreachable, further complicating the pursuit of justice. The recent case of Joao Rodrigues, a former apartheid officer who died before standing trial, highlighted the urgency for timely prosecutions in cases delayed for decades.
The families of victims, like Nyoka’s, continue to await closure. “This moment represents hope for the family, who have shown immense resilience,” said Leteane, acknowledging the delays and setbacks they have endured since the TRC’s recommendation for further investigation in the 1990s.
The Nyoka family, along with the FHR and their legal partners, is keenly invested in seeing the trial through.
The Foundation for Human Rights currently manages over 20 similar cases, while hundreds more remain unresolved. The organisation has urged the state to expedite these cases, expressing concerns over limited resources and a backlog of unresolved apartheid-era cases. They believe this represents a crucial step toward upholding the TRC’s commitment to justice and accountability.
The High Court will reconvene for Marais’s sentencing on January 27 2025, a date set to bring long-awaited justice to the Nyoka family. As for Van den Berg, Engelbrecht, and Stander, their trial could establish further accountability and extend justice to other families impacted by the violence of apartheid.
--ChannelAfrica--
