Cape Town - More than 50 years after their father’s death at the hands of apartheid security police, the family of anti-apartheid Struggle activist Imam Abdullah Haron hope to obtain closure.
This as the unsatisfactory February 1970 inquest into Haron’s death in police custody was reopened and a new judicial inquiry was launched to ascertain the facts of what really happened began on Monday.
Imam Haron’s son Muhammed said the family is feeling positive about the re-opening of the inquest into their father’s death, even though it is five decades later.
Sitting with his wife Mumtaz and cousin Zainal Makde through the first day’s hearing, Muhammed said they were anxious to see how the matter unfolds.
“There seems to be positivity. I think the judge himself set the tone, as did the evidence from the SAPS with Cold Cases Investigation unit commander Deon Petersen, despite the fact they didn’t get certain documents that they wanted.
In his opening statement, Western Cape High Court judge Daniel Thulare, who is presiding over the inquest, made a point of asking several of the questions that should have been asked at the original inquest in February, 1970 but were not.
Judge Thulare said his mission would be to determine the likely cause of Imam Haron’s death, a point which he said had not been properly examined during the 1970 inquest before magistrate JSP Kuhn.
Judge Thulare said this re-opened inquest would be carried out openly unlike the 1970 inquest which was “done under the critical watch, if not direction, of members of the Security Branch of the South African Police”.
The first witness at the re-opened inquest was Petersen, who was assigned to the investigation in August 2020.
He was led through his affidavit by NPA advocate Lifa Matybeni, who told the court that the inquest was not a criminal prosecution, but an inquiry.
Petersen told the judge his investigation into the matter had found that during Haron’s 123-day long detention he had been denied privacy, even when being examined by a doctor.
“There were constantly police and security service agents with him even when he was interviewed by a magistrate.”
Interjecting with questions, Judge Thulare asked whether the alleged fall on September 19 that led to Haron’s death on September 27 was ever recorded.
Judge Thulare said this pointed to the suspicion that the story of the fall down the stairs was “concocted much later in a bid to hoodwink the family and the world, and the cover up of torture”.
The Haron family’s lawyer at the inquest, Howard Varney, said in his opening statement that South Africa, and in particular the post-apartheid state, had failed the Haron family and many other families waiting for truth and justice from apartheid-era crimes.
Varney, however, said they were confident that the reopened inquest would finally unearth the truth
Giving the background to the Imam’s death, Varney said Haron had been summoned to the Caledon Square Security Branch, which is now Cape Town central police station, on May 28, 1969.
On arrival he was detained, interrogated and tortured by various Security Branch officers, including two in particular, named Spyker van Wyk and Dirk Genis. Haron was kept in solitary confinement for 123 days, and subjected to daily interrogations. During the day, he fasted.
In the evenings, his wife Galiema Haron who has since died, would visit her husband with soup for him to break his fast.
However, a few days before his death, she was denied access to him. The Haron family was told he had died on September 27, 1969.
The police alleged he had fallen down a flight of stairs on September 19 and had suffered two broken ribs, bleeding from the spine and 27 bruises.
Galiema Haron died at age 93 on Sunday, September 29, 2019, exactly 50 years after her late husband’s burial.
Also in court was ANC MP Faiez Jacobs, who said he had come to show solidarity with the family.
Jacobs said: “We know he was murdered by the apartheid state machinery and it took a long while for this justice to come through.”
This morning will see the court move to the Cape Town Central police station as well as the Maitland police station where Haron was held, for an inspection in loco by the judge to get a better picture of the scene.