Butana Almond Nofomela (born 1957) is a former South African security policeman. In 1989 when under sentence of death for murder, he confessed to membership of a police assassination squad that killed and terrorized opponents of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he was released on parole in 2009.

Death sentence

Nofomela was sentenced to death in 1988 after being convicted of the murder of a white farmer, Johannes Lourens."Nofomela a free man"
News24 Archives, 11 September 2009

Confession

On the evening of 19 October 1989, Nofomela made a confession from his death row cell in Pretoria, just hours before he was due to go to the gallows. He announced that he had information to disclose about his membership from 1980 in a death squad operated by the South African Security Police. His execution was stayed for an investigation into his allegations.
New York Times, 23 November 1989 He gave accounts of torture and murder that took place at the notorious

Vlakplaas Vlakplaas (trans. "shallow farm") is a farm 20 km west of Pretoria that served as the headquarters of counterinsurgency unit C1 (later called C10) of the Security Branch of the apartheid-era South African Police. Though officially called S ...

police farm.David O'Sullivan
"Transformed murderer becomes role model"
IOL, Independent Media Group, 12 October 2001 Nofomela identified a retired captain in the security police, Dirk Coetzee, as his old commander. Coetzee, who was hiding in Europe, confirmed that he had led one of five "hit squads" run out of a restricted police base at Vlakplaas near Pretoria. Nofomela said he was one of seven men who raided a suspected safe house of members of the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

(ANC) in Swaziland in 1983, using a hand grenade and automatic weapons. Three guerrillas were killed and one wounded in the raid. In another affidavit he stated that in November 1981, he helped kill Griffiths Mxenge, a Durban human rights lawyer said to have links to the outlawed ANC, and made the murder appear as a robbery. He also said that Coetzee had told him he might be needed to kill the victim’s wife, Victoria Mxenge; she was shot and axed to death in August 1985. Coetzee's, Tshikalange's and Nofomela's statements all corroborated one another. Nofomela also gave an account of an incident in

Lamontville Lamontville is a town in EThekwini in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Township south of Durban, on the Umlaas River and next to Mobeni. It was laid out in 1930 and named after the Revd Archibald Lamont Archibald Lamont (21 ...

in which a police hit squad killed some guerillas of the ANC in late 1985.

John Dugard Christopher John Robert Dugard (born 23 August 1936 in Fort Beaufort), known as John Dugard, is a South African professor of international law. His main academic specializations are in Roman-Dutch law, public international law, jurisprudence, hum ...

, a law professor at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

, said an identical incident occurred in Chesterville in 1986 in which four members of a youth organization were slain. Nofomela applied for amnesty in respect of the Chesterville incident, and received amnesty for the killing of eight anti-apartheid activists, including Mxenge."Truth and Reconciliation Commission - Amnesty Hearing 1st September 1999"
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Release

During his sentence Nofomela expressed remorse for his deeds. In an interview he reflected on how his life has changed, "Prison has been a blessing in disguise, I’m remorseful, but my eyes have been opened. I appeal to all those I’ve wronged to forgive me." Nofomela was released from the

Pretoria Central Prison Pretoria Central Prison, renamed Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area by former President Jacob Zuma on 13 April 2013 and sometimes referred to as Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services is a large prison in central Pretoria, within the City of Tshwane ...

on parole in 2009, after he had served 22 years in prison.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nofomela, Butana Almond 1957 births Living people South African prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of South Africa