10/09/2026
10 Sept 1977
Sgt L. Nkosi:-
Sgt L. Nkosi of the SA Police COIN (Counter Insurgency) Unit was killed on active service serving within South Africa:-
The Case of Leonard Nkosi
Leonard Nkosi left South Africa in 1963 to undergo military and political training with MK. He was a leader and allegedly a renowned sniper in the Wankie Campaign. He was captured by the Security Branch in 1967 and it is believed that he worked as an askari and later joined the Security Branch. In his application for amnesty, Mr Jan Daniel Potgieter [AM5418/97], a member of the Security Branch intelligence unit, revealed that Nkosi had been compelled to turn state witness against his former colleagues.
Daluxolo Luthuli [AM4057/96] claims that it was Nkosi who assisted in his December 1967 arrest in a sting operation in Messina. Nkosi subsequently testified against him and Luthuli was sent to Robben Island. Nkosi also testified for the state against other members of the Luthuli Detachment, including Mr James April who was tried in the Pietermaritzburg Supreme Court [CT00428/OUT].
On 10 September 1977, shortly after testifying against Harry Gwala and nine others in the 1976–77 treason trial in Pietermaritzburg, Nkosi was assassinated. Security Branch amnesty applicants told the Commission that Nkosi was shot dead and his wife injured with a single shot from a Tokarev and that ANC member Reverend Stanley Msibi (now deceased) was implicated in Nkosi’s death [AM3686/96]. The ANC claimed responsibility for the assassination in its second submission to the Commission.
The name of Sgt L. Nkosi appears on the SA Police Counter Insurgency Unit Memorial wall in Pretoria.
