Issued by: Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Background:
On 15 October 1985 world attention was focused on Athlone after an incident in which youths started stoning what looked like a South African Transport Services truck and shotgun-armed policemen, who had been hiding in crates at the back of the truck, broke cover and fired at the youths. Two youths died in the road and a third, who was in a nearby house, was killed by shotgun fire.
The police defended their alleged "ambush" of the stonethrowers as a necessary technique to protect people using public roads in the area .They said that normal vehicle patrols by security forces had proved ineffective because the stonethrowers had devised a strategy of waylaying vehicles which they thought could be attacked and destroyed with impunity.
In February 1989 an inquest was held to determine the circumstances surrounding the deaths of two children, Michael Miranda and Shaun Magmoed, aged 11 and 16 years respectively, and Mr. Jonathan Claasen, aged 21 years. Evidence before the court was that members of a police task force were ordered to conceal themselves in wooden crates on the back of a truck which was then driven twice down a road in the suburb of Athlone. On it's second trip into the suburb, it came under a hail of rocks and stones. The policemen sprang from their hiding places and without warning, started firing in the direction of the stonethrowers .
The magistrate, Mr G Hoffman, found that the task-force was negligent and caused the death of the three victims. Mr Hoffman said that "there was not a shred of evidence" to show that Miranda and Claasen had thrown stones and although Mr Magmoed had been identified by a witness as wearing a green shirt, he found the teenager had not thrown stones either. Mr Hoffman said that a State of Emergency had been declared 11 days before the incident, but that "the police could not hide behind a state of emergency"
The Attorney General of the Cape at the time, Mr Niel Roussouw, declined to prosecute and this decision was supported by the then Minister of Justice, Mr Kobie Coetsee. The families of Mr Magmoed and Mr Miranda thereafter decided to launch a private prosecution in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977, the first in South African history. The families were however unsuccessful with their prosecution .