Kasrils takes stand at Timol inquest to deny suicide order
FORMER intelligence services minister Ronnie Kasrils dismissed claims that the then-banned ANC and SACP encouraged members to commit suicide if they had been captured and tortured by apartheid police at the Ahmed Timol inquest.
“There was never an instruction to commit suicide. It was never part of our doctrine and philosophy,” Kasrils testified during the second leg of the reopening of the inquiry at the high court in Pretoria yesterday.
Kasrils is a former member of both the ANC and SACP top structures, and was involved in MK military operations during the Struggle.
He told the inquest he got to know Timol when he worked for a committee led by Yusuf Dadoo, Joe Slovo and others in London. He dismissed claims Timol committed suicide in line with a training script which was allegedly given out to recruits.
“There was no such instruction. If this was true, then it means (Nelson) Mandela and (Walter) Sisulu would have also committed suicide.”
Kasrils said they always encouraged recruits to hold out for at least 24 hours to allow other members to get away. If confronted by a tough situation, they had to reveal what the “enemy” already knew.
“We took a humane approach and never expected our recruits to hold out indefinitely or never break under torture.”
He said, if anything, recruits viewed arrests as badges of honour.
Advocate Howard Varney, who is representing Timol’s family, presented Kasrils with the Inkululeko Freedom document, which the original inquest magistrate relied on to rule that Timol had committed suicide.
Kasrils went through some of the passages and confirmed they were authentic. However, he maintained some of the things were manipulated to appear that the ANC and SACP encouraged members to commit suicide.
Kasrils, who contributed to the writing of some parts of the document, highlighted bad grammar as an indication that the document had been edited.
Earlier, Muhammad Ali Thokan, who was across the road from John Vorster Square on the fateful morning of October 27, 1971, said he hadn’t seen Timol fall from the building but had heard a thud.
Thokan said he remembered the day as if it were yesterday because he was on his way to Pretoria to get his trading licence. “I didn’t see the fall, but heard a thud. I looked FRIDAY AUGUST 04 2017 around and did not see anything and then I just carried on.”
Later a pedestrian exclaimed that a body had fallen from a building and when he went to investigate he was told to “f *** off ” by a group of plain-clothes police officers.
Judge Billy Mothle asked Thokan if he was sure about the time of day on which the event took place.
Thokan responded he was certain because he wouldn’t have driven to Pretoria in the afternoon as government offices would have been closed, and the trading licence was important.
Thokan’s testimony contradicts former security branch police officer Jan Rodrigues’s version of the incident.
A 1972 inquest found that Timol had committed suicide at the infamous John Vorster Square police station, now known as the Johannesburg Central police station, on September 27, 1971, by jumping from a 10th floor window.
However, this had been hotly contested by the activist’s family and associates for decades, who believe he was murdered by the apartheid government.
The inquest continues. – ANA