Ex apartheid officer 'feels remorse' for activist's killing

FORMER apartheid police officer Johan Marais, who was earlier found guilty of the 1987 murder of student activist Caiphus Nyoka, has remorse for what he did 38 years ago and wishes he could undo what happened.

- ZELDA VENTER

This is according to psychologist, Kirsten Clark, who gave evidence yesterday in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, in Marais's sentencing proceedings.

The proceedings mark a pivotal moment in the decades-long struggle for justice by the Nyoka family, after Marais pleaded guilty to the murder in November last year.

Nyoka was a prominent student leader in the East Rand and the then-Transvaal when, in August 1987, he was shot dead at his family home in Daveyton by a police unit established to deal with terrorism.

In 1988 and 1989, an inquest held before the Benoni Magistrate's Court resulted in a ruling that the police had acted in self-defence, despite evidence presented by the family suggesting otherwise.