PODCAST | A truth unreconciled: Highgate Massacre, episode 1

New judicial findings into the 1993 Highgate Massacre have formally overturned decades of assumptions about who carried out the attack, placing responsibility on apartheid security forces rather than the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA), the former military wing of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).

The ruling was handed down earlier in December, a month in which South Africans also observe the Day of Reconciliation, a national holiday established to bridge past divisions and promote unity after apartheid. The day is closely associated with the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), making unresolved cases like the Highgate Massacre a continuing reminder of how parts of the country’s past remain unsettled.

On 1 May 1993, a gunman opened fire inside the Highgate Hotel in East London, killing five people: Boyce Wheeler, Derek Whitfield, Stanley Hacking, Deon Harris and Douglas Gates. Several others were injured, including survivors who have spent more than three decades seeking clarity, accountability and closure.

EWN visited the former Highgate Hotel site with survivors and family members of those killed. They traced the layout of the bar, identified where victims fell, and recounted the sequence of events that unfolded in minutes.

Survivor Neville Beling, who was 20 at the time, recalled the moment the attack began:

“When I hit the ground, I was already shot three times with an AK-47.”

Others said the attacker’s clothing and behaviour did not match APLA’s operational methods. “The first thing that struck me were the blue police combat boots identical to those of the riot unit,” said Karl Weber, a survivor who lost his arm in the shooting.

The TRC, established in 1995 to investigate gross human rights violations committed between 1960 and 1994, identified Highgate as a case requiring further investigation. However, the matter did not progress for decades.

Some survivors later aligned themselves with PAC structures, noting that party members continued to engage with them and support commemorative events during years when the state’s investigative processes remained inactive.

In 2025, Judge Vusi Mavundla found that ballistic evidence, ammunition characteristics, grenade type, and the attacker’s conduct aligned more closely with covert operations linked to apartheid security structuresthan with APLA activity.

The judgment also noted discrepancies and missing information in earlier investigations.

These findings place Highgate among several apartheid-era cases originally addressed during the TRC process but never fully resolved through prosecution. The renewed legal clarity comes more than 30 years after the attack, during which many survivors have lived with ongoing physical and economic consequences.

Part two of this series will examine other TRC-linked matters receiving renewed court attention, including the Cradock Four case, the Caiphus Nyoka verdict, and the national inquiry established to determinewhy many apartheid-era investigations identified by the TRC failed to progress.

Earlier this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed a judicial inquiry to examine why dozens of TRC-referred cases stalled for decades, and whether state institutions obstructed or failed to pursue them. Its findings are expected to shape how outstanding apartheid-era matters, including the Highgate Massacre, are dealt with going forward.