Butana Almond Nofomela
Butana Almond Nofomela (born 1957) was a former Vlakplaas security policeman, and once one of South Africa's most brutal killers. Former apartheid Askari was released from the Pretoria Central Prison on parole after he had served 22 years of a life sentence.[1]
Nofomela was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988 after being convicted of the murder of farmer Johannes Lourens.[2]
On the evening of 19 October 1989, Nofomela made a confession from his death row cell, just hours before he was due to go to the gallows. He told horrific tales of torture and murder that took place at the notorious Vlakplaas police farm.[1]
Thirty-two-year-old Nofomela was on death row in Pretoria awaiting execution for killing a white farmer. Hours before he was scheduled to hang on 20 October 1989, Nofomela announced that he had information to disclose about his membership in a death squad operated by the South African Security Police. His execution was stayed for an investigation into his allegations.[3]
Nofomela applied for amnesty in respect of the Chesterville incident of June 1986. He received amnesty for the killing of eight anti-apartheid activists, including human rights lawyer, Griffiths Mxenge in 1981.[4]
Nofomela said he served with a police assassination squad that killed and terrorized opponents of apartheid, since 1980.[4]
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.[3]
Nofomela said he was one of seven men who raided a suspected safe house of members of the ANC in Swaziland late in 1983, using a hand grenade and automatic weapons. He said that he accidentally shot one of the other raiders, Jeff Bosego in the ankle.[3]
Nofomela said, in another affidavit, that in November 1981, he helped kill Griffiths Mxenge, a Durban lawyer said to have links to the outlawed African National Congress, and made the murder appear as a robbery. He also said that Captain 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.[3]
Nofomela said he knew about an incident in Lamontville in which a police hit squad killed some guerillas of the ANC in late 1985. John Dugard, a law professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, said an identical incident occurred in Chesterville in 1986 in which four members of a youth organization were slain.[3]
In a rare interview whilst in prison, Nofomela openly 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."[1]