Former security policeman Johannes ”Slang” van Zyl arrived at the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday for an appearance in connection with the murder of three anti-apartheid activists known as the Pebco Three in 1985, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported.
His appearance follows the arrest and court appearance in February of another former security policeman, Gideon Nieuwoudt, last month in connection with the murders.
Nieuwoudt was granted bail and would return to court on June 3 and a warrant for Van Zyl’s arrest had been issued as he was out of the country at the time.
It emerged at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that the security police had been responsible for the torture-deaths of Qaquwili Godolozi, Champion Galela and Sipho Hashe, who were members of the then Port Elizabeth Black Civic Organisation, known as Pebco.
Pebco was an affiliate of the now-defunct United Democratic Front, then widely seen as the internal wing of the still-exiled African National Congress.
A statement at the time said the three community leaders were abducted at the Port Elizabeth airport on May 8 1985, and subsequently murdered near Cradock on a farm known as Post Chalmers.
Their bodies were then burnt and thrown into the Fish River.
Amnesty was denied after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found Nieuwoudt as well as Herman Barend du Plessis (former commanding officer of the security police in Port Elizabeth), Van Zyl and Gerhardus Johannes Lotz had failed to make a full disclosure of their crime as required by law. — Sapa