[WATCH] Ex-Apartheid officer sentenced for 1987 murder of student activist

Thabiso Goba

10 July 2025 | 15:33

On 24 August 1987, Johan Marais and a fellow police officer broke into the Daveyton home of 23-year-old Caiphus Nyoka and shot him multiple times. Nyoka was an activist with the ANC-aligned Congress of South African Students. Marais pleaded guilty last year, expressing that the incident has caused him severe emotional trauma. He has now been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

• Caiphus Nyoka
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
• National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)

Johan Marais, former apartheid police officer who pleaded guilty to the 1987 murder of COSAS member, Caiphus Nyoka. Marais is being sentenced today at the Pretoria High Court. Picture: Thabiso Goba/ EWN.