A Change is Gonna Come

The Death Throes of a Hated System
They were extraordinary times. Apartheid, described by the United Nations, as a Crime Against Humanity, was on its last legs. It was in every way unsustainable. Political prisoners had been freed, including the international symbol of the fight against Apartheid and national icon, Nelson Mandela, but the the political process that would replace the abomination that was Apartheid had yet to be completed. The National Party of then South African President F. W. de Klerk had no choice but to negotiate with long time enemies the African National Congress (ANC).

Nevertheless, this process had opposition from both sides of the political spectrum too. The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) had been weakened by infiltration and the systematic use of the death penalty by the National Party's government and courts over many years. The criminal justice system had been used by the government to punish opposition. The PAC did not support the process as it was unfolding at that time. It viewed all white people as legitimate targets because it believed that they had benefited from Apartheid and its armed wing continued its operations, including an attack that would send shock waves around the world. Atrocities were still being committed by the security services as elections loomed. But while the PAC wanted to smash Apartheid and the hated system of racist privilege that it stood for, the process had opposition from those who benefited from it and wanted to keep Apartheid, or even extent white power, such as the late Eugène Terre'Blanche and his Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB).

The Eikenhof Attack
Just over three years had passed since Mandela's release. The elections that would propel Mandela to the Presidency of South Africa were just a year away, but the nitty-gritty still had to be agreed for the revolution to be completed at the ballot box. There had been plenty of pain over many years and it had been disproportionate against the black majority. Many martyrs had given their lives – the living still bore the scars of a bestial system that had to be opposed not only through peaceful means, but also through armed struggle.

The Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA) – the PAC's military wing – had not given up the armed struggle in March 1993. It would do so before long, but not before an operation that shocked South Africa to the core. On March 19th 1993 Norman Mitchley was driving his Volkswagen Passat along the Vereeniging road, near Eikenhof, Johannesburg. Craig Lamprecht, Norman's wife, Zandra, their son Shaun, and Shaun's friend Claire Silberbauer were passengers when they encountered a green BMW. It belonged to Mziwamadoda Mpunga, but he had been forced out of it at gunpoint by members of APLA. They opened fire on Mitchley's car. Lamprecht and Norman Mitchley survived but Silberbauer and Zandra and Shaun Mitchley were killed.

The PAC's President, Letlapa Mphahlele, expressed surprise and shock that despite APLA quickly contacting media claiming responsibility for the attack, a dreadful miscarriage of justice was allowed to occur. Opposition to the political process that would dismantle Apartheid was not limited to political parties. State terrorism and political assassination had been used to cow resistance and the judicial process was not immune either.

The ANC had given up the armed struggle and was organising as a political party, but elements within the South African Police Force at that time saw their opportunity to discredit and undermine the ANC by pinning the Eikenhof attack on them. ANC members Siphiwe Bholo, Titi Ndweni and Sipho Gavin were targeted, despite APLA's admission that it was their operation. A shameful and politically motivated and orchestrated miscarriage of justice was allowed to occur.

Confessions were coerced from the Eikenhof Three, who had also been misidentified by Mpunga. Those are two of the commonest forms of evidence that result in miscarriages of justice. South Africa was on the verge of emerging from the shadow of Apartheid, but its criminal justice system remained in the dark ages. Sadly, despite the eventual vindication of the Eikenhof Three, which occurred in an unusual manner over a decade ago, the lessons of their vindication have yet to be learned by the South African criminal justice system.

The Birth of a Travesty

The Operation
18 years ago an APLA (Azanian People's Liberation Army) operation left three people dead and two injured in an attack that would have widespread implications for South African justice. It resulted in a case that not only exposed the injustice of Apartheid courts in their death throes, but also showed that serious flaws were inherited by the post-Apartheid criminal justice system, which has so far refused to resolve it, despite a successful appeal and a finding from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that leaves no room for doubt that the Eikenhof Three (Siphiwe Bholo, Boy Titi Ndweni and Sipho Gavin) were, as they had always insisted, entirely innocent.

On March 19th 1993 Norman Mitchley was driving his Volkswagen Passat on the Vereeniging Road, near Eikenhof. Craig Lamprecht was a passenger, along with Norman's wife Zandra, their 14 year-old son Shaun and friend Claire Silberbauer. Mziwamadoda Mpunga was driving his BMW on the same road. He was held up at gunpoint by members of APLA and it was used in the attack with AK47s that killed Silberbauer and Zandra and Shaun Mitchley. Lamprecht and Norman Mitchley were injured, but survived. The Eikenhof attack shocked South Africa, but significant facts that should have prevented a gross miscarriage of justice took damaging years to emerge.

Incredible Evidence
While I was in South Africa last year I met the Eikenhof Three and the President of the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), Letlapa Mphahlele. Shortly after the attack confusion or misinformation reigned. While some believe that APLA did not take responsibility for its attack,  Mphahlele insists that APLA swiftly claimed responsibility for the Eikenhof attack by telephoning media. This is vitally important as Bholo, Ndweni and Gavin were African National Congress (ANC) members and activists.

They were dragged into this appalling case deliberately and maliciously by a moribund police force and criminal justice system anxious to discredit and weaken the ANC. Despite a long and wretched history of unreliable identification cases in South Africa, the crux of the case that the Apartheid state in its death rattle brought against the Eikenhof Three was identification evidence. Mpunga had seen the men who took his car at gunpoint. He was the crucial 'independent' witness, but Mpunga wrongly identified three innocent men – Bholo, Ndweni and Gavin at an identification parade that was held at a police station.

Mistaken or malicious misidentification feature in many miscarriages of justice and this was well known in South Africa even at the height of Apartheid. Another major cause of wrongful convictions is coerced confessions. Both occurred in what would become one of the worst miscarriages of justice in African history, but there was another element to this case – a malevolent one. It was an APLA operation, but there were dark forces operating in South Africa in those times that wanted to blame the ANC to either derail the political process totally, or at least weaken the ANC's credibility and position in the negotiations that eventually consigned Apartheid to history. Disgracefully, South Africa's criminal justice system would be used and abused to secure that result and that continued even after apartheid had been defeated. The notorious Judge David Curlewis accepted the confessions as true and freely given and Mpunga's identification of the three as accurate. He sentenced Bholo and Gavin  to death – later commuted to life imprisonment – and Ndweni to 17 years imprisonment. It was an atrocious miscarriage of justice that disgraced any court – even an Apartheid one. There was no scientific evidence whatsoever linking the Eikenhof Three to the Eikenhof attack and that would later prove crucial. The injustice continued even after the innocence of the Eikenhof Three became undeniable, but the truth eventually found an unusual way to emerge and proclaim their innocence from the rooftops.

Subcategories