It has come 47 years too late, but finally the wheels of justice have begun to turn in the Ahmed Timol case. It was this month, 47 years ago, that the Security Branch threw Timol either from the roof or the 10th floor of John Vorster Square to his death.
As was the case with the other 73 comrades who were killed in detention, we never expected that we would ever know the truth of what happened to them, as their murderers have maintained a pact of silence.
As ANC veterans of the Struggle, we had hoped that the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) would pursue the 300 cases referred to it by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for further investigation and prosecution, but we have failed the victims and their families to pursue truth and justice in these cases, and so many more.
Almost a quarter-century into our freedom, many of the murderers have died never having asked for amnesty for their crimes and never having faced the might of the law. That was the TRC deal - full disclosure of your crimes and you would be shown mercy, otherwise face prosecution.
At some point the NPA will have to account for its failure to pursue justice which was an imperative in terms of healing for our nation.
It was some months after Timol was murdered that we got wind of his fate on Robben Island. It left us, political prisoners, shaken and outraged that the regime continued to torture and murder with such impunity those who opposed the evil of apartheid.
It had been a year after we set foot on Robben Island that Babla Saloojee had been thrown to his death on September 9, 1965, falling 20m from a seventh floor office of the security police’s headquarters, The Grays building in central Johannesburg. Again the state claimed it was suicide.
The outside world had not reacted with the necessary outrage and sanction against the apartheid regime’s brutality, leading to one comrade after another being tortured to the point of death. In 1969, it was Imam Abdullah Haroon who was killed in detention by the security police.
It is a victory for truth and the historical record that, 46 years after the fact, the Timol inquest was reopened in the search of the truth. It has opened a door for other families who are suffering the pain of not knowing what happened to their loved ones, and who the perpetrators were.
But the truth is that it was the dogged determination of Timol’s nephew Imtiaz Cajee, assisted by the Foundation for Human Rights, Legal Resources Centre, Webber Wentzel, as well as human rights lawyers such as Howard Varney, who forced the NPA’s hand to reopen the inquest as new evidence had emerged. It took years of lobbying the NPA and hiring private investigator Frank Dutton for the Timol family to finally see the judicial process take its course.
Sitting in the high court last year and watching the Special Branch policemen Joao Rodrigues, Neville Els and Seth Sons testify, maintaining their almost half-a-century-old lies and cover-up, was chilling.
Even in their old age they had failed to embrace the concept that the truth would set them free. They were untransformed and unapologetic, and will probably take their lies and evil deeds to the grave with them.
Judge Billy Mothle gave them adequate warning that their failure to tell the truth could lead to their prosecution. It is only right that Rodrigues has been charged and will be prosecuted. His age is of no consequence.
The documentary Someone to Blame: The Ahmed Timol Inquest, by Enver Samuel and co-produced by Cajee, which will air for the first time on SABC on Sunday at 7.30pm, has done an excellent job of documenting the legal process that brought the truth of the Timol case to light. It exposes the horrors the victims endured.
One was horrified by the type of physical torture detainees were subjected to in the infamous “Truth Room 1026” on the 10th floor of John Vorster Square. Their screams were muffled by the soundproof vault in which they were beaten as they were kept for hours in the helicopter position.
We heard testimony from Salim Essop who had been arrested and detained with Timol and relayed how security policemen, positioned on either side of him, would force him to squat as they mule kicked his thighs with jackboots until he would pass out, and they would urinate on his face.
Essop was so badly brutalised over five days of interrogation that he was unable to walk for months, and confined to a prison hospital. His testimony provided a glimpse of what Timol must have been subjected to, with his depressed skull fracture and multiple broken bones, most wounds having been sustained before his fall, forensic pathologists say.
Timol, who was suffering a brain injury from having been beaten with an iron rod, unable to walk from days of beatings, was in no condition to have run past Rodrigues and launched himself out of a closed window.
When will apartheid’s torturers face the nation and ask for forgiveness? We have given them every chance to come clean, offering mercy in return.
Now is the time to seek justice for those who died torturous deaths at the hands of men who continue to scoff at our attempts at truth and reconciliation. As the ANC Veterans League, we are asking the NPA to pursue these cases of deaths in detention with vigour.
Ebrahim is an MP and parliamentary counsellor to the Presidency. He was incarcerated on Robben Island for 18 years and headed the ANC underground in Swaziland.