Three people are murdered at Eikenhof

Zandra Mitchley, her fourteen year old son, Shaun, and his friend, Claire Silberbauer, were murdered on the old Vereeniging road, near Eikenhof, south of Johannesburg.  Boy Titi Ndweni, Sipiwe James Bholo and Sipho Samuel Gavin, three African National Congress (ANC) activists were found guilty of their murders by Judge David Curlewis after they had been identified as the culprits during an identification parade and had made confessions of guilt to a police officer. The accused later pleaded their innocence and insisted that the confessions were false and had been extracted under torture. Sipiwe Bholo and Sipho Gavin were sentenced to death three times (later commuted to life sentences) while Boy Titi Ndweni was sentenced to seventeen years in jail. During a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearing Pan African Congress (PAC) activist, Phila Dolo, claimed responsibility for the attack. In his amnesty application Dolo told the TRC that he supervised the operation in his capacity as commander in the Azanian People's Liberation Army, the armed wing of the PAC. After a lengthy campaign by the ANC and PAC to free the 'Eikenhof Three', they were released from Johannesburg prison in 1999, having spent five years in jail for a crime they had not committed. The head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Bulelani Ngcuka, decided not bring new charges against them.