Judge Tears Apart Apartheid Murder Case Acquittals Could Bring Charges By Blacks That Courts Have Failed To Produce Justice

A judge tore apart the murder case against the former apartheid government’s defense minister, acquitting six of his co-defendants Thursday and making it likely he would go free in the biggest political trial of the post-apartheid era.

Magnus Malan, the steel-willed military leader who guided the “total onslaught” campaign against anti-apartheid groups in South Africa and neighboring states, is the highest-ranking official to face criminal charges linked to the killings of government opponents.

He and 15 others defendants - who include some of apartheid’s most powerful police and military intelligence officers - faced charges in connection with a 1987 political attack that killed 13 people in the KwaMakutha black township south of Durban.

The judge, Jan Hugo, acquitted the first six defendants, all of them Zulu nationalists of Inkatha Freedom Party who received special military training in the 1980s.

He described the KwaMakutha attack as a tragic “fiasco” and said the main target of the assault, anti-apartheid activist Victor Ntuli, was not at his house when it was sprayed with automatic rifle fire.

“This was not an officially planned or authorized military exercise,” Hugo told a packed courthouse in rejecting the premise of the prosecution case in the seven-month trial.

Inkatha supporters who sat outside the court house danced in celebration after the ruling.

A statement from African National Congress leaders said the acquittals undermined faith in the nation’s justice system.

“In the eyes of our people, the prosecution team failed them,” read the statement from ANC leaders of the KwaZulu-Natal province.

Hugo rejected evidence from former intelligence officer Capt. Johan Opperman, who admitted planning the operation, and his assistant, Sgt. Andre Cloete, since the prosecutor did not use other witnesses to corroborate their testimony.

But the judge said it was likely the two had support for carrying out the attack.

“The question is where and from whom,” said Hugo.

That issue was expected to form the basis of his ruling Friday on whether Malan approved a military plan to set up Inkatha hit squads to attack anti-apartheid groups linked to Nelson Mandela’s ANC.

Malan’s defense hinges on his assertion that younger renegade officers ran Operation Marion autonomously.

Hugo also absolved Inkatha official M.Z. Khumalo of any blame in the township massacre, but Thursday’s session ended before he completed his ruling on remaining charges against Khumalo and the other nine defendants, including Malan.

All 10 remaining defendants have pleaded innocent to 19 charges connected to the massacre - including one “catch-all” charge they conspired to eliminate opponents between 1986 and 1989.

Malan has denied knowledge of the massacre.

If Malan and the others are acquitted, many blacks will say the judicial system failed and that apartheid criminals were freed unfairly.