Pretoria - Closing arguments in the second leg of the inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol will be heard on August 24, after the last witness took the stand on Wednesday.
Pretoria High Court Judge Billy Mothle was told by the advocate appearing for the Timol family, Howard Varney, that they were still considering calling another former security police agent to the stand, to clear up certain issues.
Advocate Torie Pretorius, acting for the National Prosecuting Authority, responded that “it will just muddle the issues” if that witness was called. Varney, however, said he will consult the rest of his legal team before he made a final decision in this regard.
Judge Mothle, however, postponed the matter for final arguments and stressed, yet again that the matter had to come to finality.
Another former security agent, Seth Sons, now 80, who worked as an investigator at the time of Timol’s death, was meanwhile the last witness to take the stand.
Like his former colleagues who gave evidence during the inquest, Sons also had no knowledge of anyone who was tortured during his time at the notorious John Vorster Square building.
Sons said he had never witnessed anyone being tortured and never heard from his colleagues that they had tortured detainees. He claimed that he read about possible tortures in the newspapers.
This is exactly the same answer which was given by former security agents Jan Rodrigues and Neville Els when they were asked about the tortures.
Sons, however, embroided his evidence slightly when Varney produced affidavits by two detainees during the 1980’s, who claimed they endured assault at the hands of Sons during interrogation.
The one claimed Sons took away his spectacles and made him stand naked in the interrogation room. The other claimed he was hit against the head .
Sons’s answer to both allegations remained the same: “I cannot remember your honour.” When he was grilled on this issue, he told the judge that “his mind was a bit rusty due to age.”
He, however, remembered exactly the route he had followed when he had returned to John Vorster Square after he the took several security police officers to the home of Timol’s parents on October 27, 1971 - on the day he had died.
He remembered he had parked the car in the western block of the complex and that it was around 4 that afternoon. He also remembered that several people came out of the lift and said that someone had fallen out of the window.
Sons said he was not bothered to ask who had fallen, nor was he interested to go and see the body. He said he went up to his office on the 9th floor to continue his work.
Asked by the judge why he did not at least enquire who had died, Sons said he was not “nosy.” He added that he also “could not stomach” seeing a body after it had plunged 10 stories to the ground.
Judge Mothle made it clear to Sons that he had to play open cards with the court about what he knew about the Timol case, else face possible consequences.
But the now deaf Sons was adamant that he heard or saw nothing. He said he in fact had never met Timol. According to Sons, he was not privileged to a lot of information in those days, as the security agents did not fully trust the “non white members of the branch.”