The Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has sentenced former apartheid police officer Johan Marais to 15 years’ imprisonment for the 1987 murder of student activist Caiphus Nyoka. Marais, 66, admitted last year that he shot Nyoka, a member of the Congress of South African Students, while executing what he described as an unlawful order during a police raid on 24 August 1987. In handing down judgment, Judge Mokhine “Papi” Mosopa said age and remorse did not outweigh the gravity of the crime, adding that Marais could use his time in prison to write a full account of the killing and to reconsider testifying against three former colleagues who are still facing prosecution. The court heard evidence of Marais’s depression and previous suicide attempts, but the judge ruled that correctional supervision would be inappropriate, concluding that a custodial sentence best fit both the offender and the offence.