TUESDAY, 12.00NOON
A JOHANNESBURG inquest into the deaths of 21 people during attacks on commuter trains in 1990 heard at its start on Monday that nine of the 10 suspects in the case have “disappeared” from Jeppe Hostel, where they were living at the time.
Five people were killed and 17 injured on September 6 1990 when a group of gunmen opened fire with AK-47 rifles on commuters on a train between Johannesburg’s Benrose and Jeppe stations. A week later, a further 16 people were killed and 32 injured in a similar incident on the same route. The dead suffered a variety of injuries, including stab and gunshot wounds.
Presiding magistrate Walter Ewart told family members of victims they had a right to legal representation. The inquest will resume on August 18.
A spate of attacks on train commuters on the Witwatersrand in the early 1990s led to more than 400 deaths. The attacks, widely believed to be part of the National Party government’s attempts to destabilise the newly unbanned political opposition, were later shown to have been carried out by groups with links to the military and the Inkatha Freedom Party. Fewer than 10 of the attacks led to successful prosecutions.