Former SADF Chief Tienie Groenewald is acquitted

Date: 22 May 1996
Updated: 30 Sep 2019

Former South African Defence Force (SADF) Chief Tienie Groenewald was acquitted by the Durban Supreme Court on all charges related to the 1987 KwaMakhutha Massacre. The KwaMakutha attack, in which thirteen people, mostly women and children, were killed and several injured, was launched on the house of United Democratic Front (UDF) activist Bheki Ntuli. Groenewald was acquitted together with other members of the SADF and Inkatha Freedom Party members such as M.Z. Khumalo.

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How we know this

01Dixon, Norm, (1996), Anger as massacre generals acquitted, from Green Left Weekly, 30 October [online], Available at www.greenleft.org.au [Accessed: 20 May 2014]
02Kalley, J.A.; Schoeman, E. & Andor, L.E. (eds)(1999). Southern African Political History: a chronology of key political events from independence to mid-1997, Westport: Greenwood.

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Former SADF Chief Tienie Groenewald is acquitted. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0013263

South African History Online (2011) 'Former SADF Chief Tienie Groenewald is acquitted', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0013263 (Accessed: 25 July 2026).

South African History Online, Former SADF Chief Tienie Groenewald is acquitted [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0013263, (accessed 25 July 2026).

"Former SADF Chief Tienie Groenewald is acquitted." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0013263. Accessed 25 July 2026.

South African History Online. "Former SADF Chief Tienie Groenewald is acquitted." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0013263.