Haffejee’s brother details the torture he suffered

Sarah Lall and Ishmail Haffejee with a photograph of their brother, Hoosen, who died while in police detention in 1977. Photo: Bongani Mbatha/African News Agency

Sarah Lall and Ishmail Haffejee with a photograph of their brother, Hoosen, who died while in police detention in 1977. Photo: Bongani Mbatha/African News Agency

Published Aug 19, 2021

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Due to Dr Hoosen Haffejee’s devout Islamic faith and its doctrine that suicide is an unforgivable sin, he would not have taken his own life, his only surviving brother, Ishmail Haffejee, told the reopened inquest into his sibling’s death.

Under cross-examination at the inquest being heard by the Pietermaritzburg High Court, presided over by Judge ZP Nkosi, Ismail described how he had come to learn of his brother’s death, the severely injured condition of his lifeless body and the impact of his death on his family.

Ismail, at the time an accounting and business economics teacher at Raisethorpe Secondary School in Pietermaritzburg, detailed how, on August 3, 1977, he was summoned to his school principal’s office where he found two of his neighbours waiting for him. He was told to leave for home to take care of the family business as his brother, Yusuf, had to travel to Durban to see the police as they had a matter to settle.

“When I got into the car and my neighbours were taking me home, I found it rather strange that the principal would give me leave from teaching to stand in the shop, so I sensed that there must be something wrong, and when I asked my neighbours they didn’t tell me anything, they were just quiet.

“As soon as we reached the shop, I saw that the shop was closed and I immediately got out of the car and ran to the window because there was a notice there saying the shop will be closed because there’s a funeral in the family,” Ismail said.

He said that people and relatives who had gathered at the house then told him that his brother Hoosen had passed away.

“My mother was absolutely devastated and I never saw my father ever cry like a baby, it was the first time I ever saw him crying like that and I was devastated,” Ismail said.

Autopsy reports showed that Haffejee’s body sustained around 50 to 70 injuries which police claimed were due to him resisting being arrested.

Ismail said that when performing the Islamic ritual of Ghusl to wash the body of the deceased, they discovered that his brother had bruise marks in the wrist, underarm and genital areas. There were bruise marks on the back of his body.

He said that he was devastated to see his brother’s body in such an injured state and tried to imagine how much he had suffered while he was being brutalised.

“When we turned him and lifted him up, his head was loose and so, I had to hold his head to support it. We strongly believe, in Islam, that life is very sacred, that life comes from Allah and it is only He that takes away life and if we were to take our life prematurely, then it is a grave sin, an unforgivable sin for indeed life comes from Allah and life belongs to Him and it is he that takes away life.

“This is a very strong belief, we all believed that, even Hoosen too believed that,” Ismail said.

Political Bureau

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