Johannesburg – The Simelane family and the Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) have expressed deep concern over ongoing delays in the start of the trial into the 1983 abduction, torture, and enforced disappearance of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) operative Nokuthula Simelane.
The start of the criminal trial has been delayed for nearly three years due to claims that one of the accused, Willem Helm Johannes Coetzee, is unfit to stand trial.
An inquiry into Coetzee’s fitness to stand trial in terms of section 77(3) of the Criminal Procedure Act is set to resume on 19 May 2025 in the Pretoria High Court.
In a statement made available to The Bulrushes on Monday, (19 May 2025), the FHR complained that the inquiry itself has been running for more than 16 months, contributing to a broader pattern of delay in a case where justice has remained elusive for over four decades.
In June 2022, Coetzee’s legal team claimed that he was mentally unfit to stand trial.
The claim was based on a two-page preliminary medical report that was submitted less than 24 hours before the scheduled start of the trial on 6 June 2022.
An independent panel of three psychiatrists and a clinical psychologist appointed in terms of section 79 of the Criminal Procedure Act found Coetzee fit to stand trial in November 2022.
Coetzee and his legal team challenged the panel’s findings.
“Coetzee and his legal team have orchestrated several attempts to delay the finalisation of the inquiry in the preceding 29 months,” the FHR said.
Coetzee, along with Anton Pretorius, is among the remaining accused Security Branch officers implicated in MK operative Simelane’s disappearance.
Two other accused, Msebenzi Radebe and Frederick Mong, died in 2019 and 2021 respectively, without ever being brought to trial.
The Simelane family’s pursuit of truth and accountability has been marred by a series of delays since the NPA formally indicted the four men on 14 March 2016.
In the early years, the trial was delayed because the South African Police Service (SAPS) refused to cover the accused’s legal costs.
This prompted a successful court challenge by the family of Simelane, which compelled SAPS to pay the legal costs of the accused as the institutional successor to the apartheid-era police.
“These sustained delays have taken an immeasurable toll on Nokuthula Simelane’s family, particularly her elderly mother, Sizakele Simelane, who continues to await justice for her daughter, last seen in 1983,” the FHR said.
“The Simelane family and FHR remain committed to ensuring justice is served and call on all parties to proceed with the trial as a matter of urgency, without further delay.”
