Cosas Four

The Cosas Four were four anti-apartheid activists from the Congress of South African Students. On 15 February 1982, three—Eustice Madikela, Peter Matabane, Fanyana Nhlapo—were killed in a bombing attack at the Krugersdorp mine pump house orchestrated by the Security Branch, while a fourth, Zandisile Musi, endured severe injuries and has since died. In 1999, some of the perpetrators disclosed that the death of the activists was an intentional killing. The two perpetrators still alive—Christiaan Siebert Rorich and Thlomedi Ephraim Mfalapitsa—were charged with kidnapping, murder, and the crimes against humanity of murder and apartheid. Their trial has been repeatedly postponed. After the end of the South African apartheid government, several perpetrators, including Rorich and Mfalapitsa, had come forward to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and confessed to the murders. Mfalapitsa admitted to accompanying the Cosas activists in a van to the killing spot and promising to teach them how to use explosives. He had left the building and locked it, then went to Rorich who remotely triggered the explosion that killed the three activists. In 2001 the TRC refused amnesty to the perpetrators, finding the crime was insufficiently connected to a political aim, and in 2003 the TRC referred the case for prosecution. After Mfalapitsa was charged, in 2024 a court decision refused to overturn the refusal of amnesty leaving the door open to his prosecution. The trial was also delayed because a court ordered the state to pay for Rorich's legal defense.

Lawyers for the defendants argued that the statue of limitations had expired and that the crimes against humanity charges were illegally retroactive. In 2025, a South African court ruled that the accused could face trial on both crimes against humanity charges as these crimes were part of customary international law at the time of the killing, and do not expire. The South Africa Litigation Centre states that the ruling is "a seismic moment for all victims, survivors and families who suffered from the conduct of an oppressive regime". This is the first indictment anywhere in the world for the crime of apartheid. In order to be convicted the prosecution would still need to prove that the elements of the crime are met, including that it was committed for the "purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them".