Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 12-10-2017
The nephew of Ahmed Timol says judgment in the inquest into the apartheid struggle stalwart’s death concludes an important aspect of the family’s journey to find closure.
High Court Judge Billy Mothle on Thursday found that Timol did not commit suicide and died as a result of being pushed from the 10th floor of the John Vorster police station, which amounts to murder.
Mothle also ruled that former police officer Joao Rodrigues was an “accessory to murder”, committed perjury and should be investigated.
Timol’s nephew Imtiaz Cajee says while the struggle stalwart’s death has finally been ventilated and the official record revised, the journey for the quest for justice continues.
“There are other families seeking closure who could do with our assistance.”
Cajee says the family was bitterly disappointed by the testimonies of former security policemen Neville Els, Joao Rodriques and Seth Sons.
“It was our hope that they would break cover and tell the truth about what happened to Uncle Ahmed. By sticking to their versions of not having ever witnessed torture, and only reading about in in the press, they lost an opportunity – not only for themselves, but also to contribute to South Africa’s greater reconciliation project.”
Cajee says South Africans should not to forget that there are many families throughout the country whose losses of loved ones at the hands of apartheid have never been adequately, if at all, acknowledged.
“The Timol family urges the NDPP and NPA to reopen all cases relating to the killing of political activists, not only those killed in police detention. We would like to view the re-opened Timol inquest as a beginning, not an end.”
Cajee also thanked the media and journalists saying the local and international coverage of the case in 1971 pressured the apartheid government into conducting an inquest.
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