On 6 March, twenty one months after a killing outside his home in Kwazakele, Port Elizabeth, a prominent UDF leader in the Eastern Cape, Edgar NGOYI (63), was acquitted of murder, along with Lulamile Cyril MKALIPI (22). An unnamed youth aged 17, who had admitted his part in the killing of a man named Nogwaza, was convicted and jailed for 14 years. Two others, Fumanekele SIYONI (24) and Xolisile PETE (21), were found guilty of assault and sent to prison for two years.
On his acquittal Ngoyi, a former Robben Island prisoner who served 17 years for ANC activities, was immediately rearrested under the emergency regulations and returned to custody, where he had been held since last June under the same regulations. Before that he had been held for 198 days awaiting bail on the murder charge.
The State alleged that Nogwaza, who visited Ngoyi on 8 June 1985 (supposedly to seek his help after rumours had implicated him in an arson attack on Ngoyi's home the previous day), was killed on Ngoyi's orders by youths guarding his house.
Earlier in the hearing, on 9 February, defence lawyers secured the discharge of three of the remaining eight defendants because of lack of evidence against them: Eunice Tenyiwe NGOYI (58), Steven Qwelela DZEDZE (30) and an unnamed boy aged 15. But the judge rejected the discharge application made on behalf of Ngoyi and Mkalipi on the grounds that evidence against them could emerge when the defence presented its case and because Mkalipi had made a statement that he was in charge of the group of thirty or so who volunteered to guard Ngoyi's house after it had been petrol bombed on 1 May and 6 June.
In fact, defence witnesses confirmed Ngoyi's own evidence that at the time Nogwaza was killed he, Ngoyi, was in a neighbour's house taking a telephone call. One said that in Ngoyi's absence those who were gathered outside his house became angry because they recognised the man waiting in Ngoyi's home to see him as the petrol bomber of the previous day. Some were convinced that on Ngoyi's return from his neighbour's he would be attacked by Nogwaza, so they decided to abduct him and kill him.
