FORTY-FIVE YEARS LATER, THE INQUEST INTO THE JABU VILAKAZI MURDER MAY BE RE-OPENED
November 2020
by Marion Edmunds
It’s one of the little-known police killings of the apartheid era. But it has the potential to be one of the most explosive.
Soweto businessman Jabu Vilakazi was killed forty-five years ago, and even then his death was considered controversial enough to warrant an inquest. Was he a gangster as claimed by the police or was he in fact a “Robin Hood” philanthropist, funding the needy and behind the scenes, supporting the Black Consciousness Movement?
We may now get closer to finding out as his family has announced that they are re-opening the inquest. The decision comes after years of attempts to investigate the reasons for his death, at the hands of police officers of the notorious Brixton Murder and Robbery Squad. At the time of his death in August 1975, Jabu Vilakazi’s children were small. Now as adults they are asking questions, not only about their father’s untimely demise, but also about the life he led before his murder.
This private investigation has been a lengthy one, and it has taken time for his immediate family to raise the status of Jabu Vilakazi’s death sufficiently for it to be worthwhile to consider a return to court.
News report of death of Jabu Vilakazi, Rand Daily Mail, 11 August 1975
The incident made headlines in 1975 because it was scandalous at the time, even for apartheid-era South Africa. Jabu Vilakazi was picked up on a robbery charge, for a cash heist in which he had played no part, and held without charge at the Brixton Police Station in Johannesburg. He was then taken out that night by police officers to Mofolo Park in Soweto. There he was told to retrieve weapons and money from a vlei. The police maintained that once in the water, the prisoner, who was shackled, searched for a package in the reeds and surprised them by suddenly pulling out two weapons and firing at his captors. At that point, Captain Corne Maree shot back thrice, fatally wounding the businessman and father of four.
Throughout the reports of the murder and the inquest, the police maintained that Jabu Vilakazi was a gangster, suggesting that he had had his just deserts. This has rankled with the family who believe him to have been a successful businessman, a community leader, philanthropist and discreet political activist, whose true actions have been either written out of history, or deliberately obscured. They look to other cases, such as the re-opening of the inquest into the death of political activist Ahmed Timol, as an example of how the injustice of apartheid courts can be rectified. This is an ongoing story. https://ewn.co.za/2020/11/06/joao-rodrigues-heads-to-sca-to-stave-off-prosecution-in-ahmed-timol-murder-case
“The family, which could not find closure and justice at the time, is undertaking this new journey with the hope that justice will prevail under our new constitutional democracy and legal system,” wrote Jabu’s widow, Jacky Vilakazi, on the 27th of October 2020.
The 1976 inquest highlighted many puzzling discrepancies in the police’s defence. With the charismatic Advocate George Bizos representing the family, both the prosecutor and the Vilakazi legal teams pushed for a murder verdict. Yet the magistrate called a “no finding”, which meant that the police officers were free to go, despite one admitting to pulling the trigger.
As the inquest dragged on in the court, tension in Soweto was rising. The 1976 student uprising exploded in July, six months before the verdict was handed down. All eyes were fixed on this political upheaval against apartheid which destabilized the state, and changed the course of South Africa’s history. Jabu Vilakazi’s story was largely forgotten until now.
©Marion Edmunds
I have been researching this story with the Vilakazi family with the aim of making a documentary about their struggle to understand the reasons for the murder of Jabu Vilakazi. Please feel free to contact me by email or phone if you have any information.
+27 82 515 6544