Former apartheid-era policeman, 81-year-old Joao Rodriques, who is accused of the murder of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol, will go on trial in December.
The South High Court set the trial date on Wednesday.
Twenty-nine-year-old Timol died in police custody in October 1971 and Rodrigues was the last person who saw him alive.
Rodrigues, who failed in his bid to have the matter quashed, testified in the 1972 inquest which ruled that Timol committed suicide by jumping to his death from the 10th floor of the John Voster Square building in Johannesburg.
However, after a long campaign by Timol's family, the inquest verdict was overturned by a court in October 2017.
Judge Billy Mothle ruled that Timol did not commit suicide and found that the anti-apartheid activist was murdered.
Rodriques will go on trial for Timol's murder on 12 December 2019.
