Amy Biehl’s murderers receive amnesty from TRC

The four murderers of Amy Biehl, American Fullbright exchange student, are granted amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). They appealed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty in 1996. Their case was heard in Cape Town on 8 July 1997, with Amy's parents attending the hearing. Vusumzi Samuel Ntamo, Ntombeki Ambrose Peni, Mzikhona Eazi Nofemela and Mongesi Christopher Manqina had been convicted for the murder of Amy Biehl in the Cape Town High Court in October 1994 and sent to jail. They applied for amnesty on the grounds that the killing of Amy was politically motivated. They were members of the Pan African Students Organisation (PASO), the Azanian People's Army (APLA) and the Pan African Congress (PAC). These parties were not convinced that reforms through the electoral process would be enough to transform the country. Their appeal was successful and on 28 July 1998 they were set free. Beihl was a Stanford graduate, completing a 10-month course of study as a Fullbright exchange scholar at the University of Western Cape Community Law Center where she had helped to develop voter registration programs for South African blacks and women as that nation's first all-race elections approached in April, 1994. On August 25, 1993, while Amy was driving three black colleagues back to Cape Town's Guguletu Township, a group of youths pelted her car with stones and forced it to stop. Dozens of young men then surrounded the car repeating the militant chant, "One settler [white person], one bullet!" Amy was then pulled from the car, struck in the head with a brick and then beaten and stabbed to death. Amy was 26 years old at the time of her murder. Read Part one  and Part two of the testimony of the four murderers before the TRC. Biehl's parents' humanity message they gave to South Africans on what was supposed to be their daughter's 32nd birthday. Information on the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust, which was launched in her honour.