Dr Ribeiro and his wife are gunned down

Date: 1 Dec 1986
Updated: 30 Sep 2019

The medical practitioner and political activist, Dr Fabian Defu Ribeiro, and his wife, a teacher turned businesswoman, Florence Barbara Ribeiro, were finally gunned down in their own courtyard on 1 December, 1986, after several attempts on their lives. It only emerged at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearing in 1997 that they were assassinated by Apartheid state agents, when six policemen (AJM Joubert, PJ Verster, C Naude, N Robey, JJH van Jaarsveld and C Vlietstra) applied for amnesty in connection with their murder. The TRC Amnesty Committee granted amnesty to the perpetrators in 1999. Former Vlakplaas commander Jan Cronje was also granted amnesty for the role he played in the planning of the murder.

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How we know this

01Sonderling, N.E. (ed.) New Dictionary of South African Biography, v. 2
02Coleman, M. (ed)(1998). A Crime Against Humanity: analysing the repression of the apartheid state, Johannesburg: Human Rights Committee.

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Dr Ribeiro and his wife are gunned down. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012677

South African History Online (2011) 'Dr Ribeiro and his wife are gunned down', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012677 (Accessed: 24 July 2026).

South African History Online, Dr Ribeiro and his wife are gunned down [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012677, (accessed 24 July 2026).

"Dr Ribeiro and his wife are gunned down." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012677. Accessed 24 July 2026.

South African History Online. "Dr Ribeiro and his wife are gunned down." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0012677.