On 31 March 1987 two young hikers, Phillip van Rensburg and Laurence Lombard, pitched camp on top of the Drakensberg mountains at a spot which has been referred to in the evidence as the Valley of the Baboons. After darkness had fallen the two hikers entered their small tent and lit a candle. While they were busy preparing a meal they suddenly found themselves being pelted with stones from outside. They left the tent, but found that their assailants continued to attack them with stones.

Both young men were felled by the stones when they tried to escape. Lombard regained consiousness during the night, but fell asleep again. When he woke up the next morning there was no sign of his friend van Rensburg or of their tent and other belongings. Lombard was fairly badly injured, but managed to find his way back to safety.

The mutilated body of van Rensburg was recovered by helicopter a few days later at a point towards the bottom of the escarpment and some 800 feet below the point where he and Lombard had pitched camp. The court a quo found that van Rensburg was thrown over the edge of the escarpment by his assailants, but it could not be established whether van Rensburg had already been dead when this was done. Lombard was unable to identify any of their assailants.

It was subseguently established that the attack on van Rensburg and Lombard had taken place hear the border of Lesotho. The police investigations took them into Lesotho and this led to the arrest of four persons, two adult males (the appellants in this case) and two young boys who were respectively about 16 and 13 years of age. The youngest member of this group, one Lebusetsa Khaloli, was used as a state witness. The other three were charged with and convicted of murder. They were also convicted of attempted murder relating to the attack on Lombard, and of robbery with aggravating circumstances in respect of the taking of the tent and other belongings of van Rensburg and Lombard.