The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) yesterday told the family of slain anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol that police had received instructions to open three dockets pursuant to the cover-up of his 1971 murder in police custody.
The charges follow Judge Billy Mothle’s finding earlier this month in the re-opened inquest that security police murdered Timol.
Judge Mothle overturned the 1972 ruling of apartheid-era magistrate JL De Villiers that Timol committed suicide and recommended that three former security policemen, who gave evidence in the reopened inquest, face charges for committing perjury and in the case of former sergeant Jan Rodrigues, as an accessory after the fact of murder.
The Timol family said the letter from the NPA said the investigating officer had made “considerable” progress in the compilation of the dockets.
Referring to the security policemen, the family said: “Their attitude under cross-examination at the reopened inquest was a matter of considerable disappointment to the family.
“The Timol family appeals to former security policemen with knowledge of the deaths of other anti-apartheid detainees to approach the victim's families and/or the NPA and/or NGOs in the human rights field with a view to telling the truth, bringing closure to the families and themselves, and contributing to sustainable reconciliation between former adversaries in South Africa.”