Judge asked to subpoena witness
Former security agent was unwilling to come to court
THE reopened inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol was postponed to tomorrow, when a former security police agent is set to take the stand. It is not known at this stage who the witness will be, as the parties would not disclose the name. But it appears to be someone who is not willing to appear before the high court in Pretoria, as Judge Billy Mothle was asked to issue a subpoena to force the witness to come and testify.
It is also not known how many more witnesses are to testify, but advocate Torie Pretorius, representing the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP), yesterday told the court that he and his team did their “checks and balances” on the new potential witnesses who have come forward.
“We decided not to call them,” said Pretorius, who added that from these interviews new leads were picked up, which the NDPP will follow up.
Advocate Howard Varney, acting for the Timol family, handed several affidavits to the court, which included an Independent Police Investigative Directorate report on recent tortures and deaths of detainees at the hands of the police.
It showed that for the 2015/16 financial year 216 deaths in custody occurred, of which 66 were suicides by means of hanging. The figures revealed that 3 466 detainees were assaulted and 144 tortured.
Judge Mothle remarked that his mandate was limited to the facts relating to the death of Timol, but Varney said he wanted to highlight that the torturing of detainees was continuing to this day.
Imtiaz Cajee, Timol’s nephew, testified about his path to ascertaining the truth Caption and picture to come later behind his uncle’s death. He said from the outset the family never believed that Timol had committed suicide.
He researched his uncle’s death in 1971 over the years and in 2003 asked the head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) at the time, Bulelani Ngcuka, to re-investigate the Timol case.
“I believed there was sufficient evidence pointing to his murder.” He was, however, informed that the matter was closed.
“I was disappointed by the approach of the NPA , which I believed to be cavalier and uncaring,” he told the court.
The family appointed their own investigator and last year presented NDPP boss Shaun Abrahams with the “new evidence”. Abrahams reopened the inquest.
Cajee asked Judge Mothle to, during his final findings in the matter, recommend that a sculpture be erected outside the Johannesburg Central Police Headquarters