Ex-South African policeman found guilty of apartheid-era killing

JOHANNESBURG - A Pretoria court on Tuesday found a former South African policeman guilty of shooting dead a young anti-apartheid campaigner in a township east of Johannesburg almost three decades ago.

The high court prosecutor said Johan Marais, 65, had pleaded guilty to the killing of Caiphus Nyoka. Local media previously reported how Marais spontaneously had already admitted guilt five years ago on waking from a coma following a suicide attempt.

The homicide was investigated as part of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up in 1996 to process crimes committed under apartheid.

Nyoka was a student activist and belonged to the Congress of South African Students. He was furthermore the South African Youth Congress Organiser of the Transvaal Student Congress and president of the Student Representative Council at his high school.

On August 23, 1987, Marais met with security officials and police to plot the killing of Nyoka.

A plan was devised to raid his home under then-commanding officer Major Leon Louis van den Berg, who also faces charges in the case.

Marais, who has yet to be sentenced, in the early hours of the following day together with several other officers also facing charges broke into Nyoka's room where he and three friends were asleep.

After removing the other three, the officers shot Nyoka nine times. He died from multiple gunshot wounds.

The trial of three other assailants will start next week and is set to run to December 6.

The prosecutor's office hailed the outcome of the Marais case as significant, not least for the family of the victim in bringing justice and closure.

The office noted such cases dating back decades were difficult to prosecute owing to a lack of evidence and witnesses. - AFP