A Verdict After a Lifetime of Waiting

For thirty-eight years, the memory of that August night in 1987 has hung heavy in the air of a Daveyton home. Caiphus Nyoka, a vibrant student leader and organiser for the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), was asleep with three friends when apartheid police officers stormed in. They removed his friends, identified their target, and shot him nine times. He died on the spot.

This week, in a Pretoria High Court sitting in Johannesburg, time finally caught up with two of the men who pulled the triggers. Former Sergeants Abraham Hercules Engelbrecht, 61, and Pieter Stander, 60, were found guilty of Nyoka’s premeditated murder. Their conviction is a stark, belated answer to a crime that once seemed destined for impunity.

The Plot, The Raid, The Long Silence

The court heard how Engelbrecht and Stander, then members of the police’s Reaction Unit, met on the evening of 23 August 1987 to plot the killing. They then raided Nyoka’s home, executing their plan with chilling precision. For decades afterwards, silence and systemic obstruction shielded them.

The path to this verdict was paved by the tireless work of the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Priority Crimes Litigation Unit, which has been revisiting Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) cases. The state presented five witnesses, including Nyoka’s sisters, Alegria and Mothasi, who carried the weight of their brother’s memory into the courtroom. Their testimony, alongside that of a TRC researcher and the investigating officer, helped piece together the truth that apartheid sought to bury.

A Mixed Outcome: Two Convicted, One Acquitted

The judgment brought a complex mix of closure and continued quest. While Engelbrecht and Stander were convicted, their former commanding officer, Major Leon Louis Van Den Berg, 75, was acquitted after a Section 174 application. The NPA’s regional spokesperson, Lumka Mahanjana, stated that while the conviction was welcomed, the state would study the judgment regarding Van Den Berg’s acquittal.

This conviction follows an earlier guilty plea from another former officer, Johan Marais, who received a 15-year sentence. Engelbrecht and Stander now await sentencing on 11 December 2025, having been remanded in custody.

A Symbol Beyond the Courtroom

The ruling reverberated far beyond the courtroom. The ANC in Gauteng called it “an important step in honouring the sacrifices” of struggle activists. The Good Party framed it as a “long-overdue step toward accountability,” using the moment to reiterate its call for justice in the 300-plus TRC cases still awaiting prosecution.

“This is not a matter of vengeance but of justice,” said Good Party Secretary General Brett Herron. “When prosecutors are allowed to act selectively… the integrity of the entire criminal justice system is undermined.”

For the Nyoka family, this is a profound, if painful, vindication. It is a signal that the long arc of history, though it may bend slowly, can still bend toward justice. The murder of a young man who mobilised others for freedom has, nearly four decades on, mobilised the law to finally speak his name and condemn his killers. The case stands as a testament to the enduring demand for trutha demand that can outlive regimes, outwait silences, and finally find its voice in a judge’s gavel.