Court hears that ex-apartheid officers charged with Caiphus Nyoka's murder intended to kill him

JOHANNESBURG - The High Court sitting in Benoni has heard that the former apartheid officers charged with the murder of student activist, Caiphus Nyoka, clearly had the intention to kill, not to arrest him.

The court is hearing closing arguments in the murder case against Leon van den Berg, Abraham Engelbrecht and Pieter Stander.

Nyoka, who was a COSAS student leader, was murdered at his home in Daveyton on the East Rand in 1987.

One of his killers, Johan Marais, a former apartheid police officer confessed to the crime and has been sentenced to 15 years behind bars.

The State in the murder case of Caiphus Nyoka has been arguing that Van den Berg, Engelbrecht and Stander went to his Dayeton home with the clear intention to murder him.

Nyoka was found in his room with two friends, who were taken out before he was shot multiple times.

Prosecutor Advocate Daniel Mogotsi said that Van den Berg, who was a major, gave an order for Nyoka to be murdered.

"Because he had no reason to go inside that tiny room because the instructions were already given. What was to happen there was obvious. He was satisfied that the foot soldiers would do what he had instructed them to do."

While the accused do not deny shooting Nyoka, they have not given a defence on why they pulled the trigger.

They have also chosen not to give a version.

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