Ex-cop in court for Timol murder
Ilse de Lange
Joao (Jan) Rodrigues, the elderly former Security Police pay clerk who allegedly helped cover up the murder of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol 46 years ago, is to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court today in connection with charges of murder and defeating the ends of justice.
The Justice and Accountability Network, a team of lawyers, investigators and activists who worked with the state to re-open the inquest into Timol’s death in 1971, said a warrant had finally been issued for Rodrigues’ arrest.
Judge Billy Mothle ruled in October last year that Timol, a prominent SACP member, had not committed suicide on October 28, 1971 by jumping out of a 10th story window at John Vorster Square in Johannesburg as a 1972 inquest found, but had been tortured and murdered by members of the Security Police.
He found that Timol had been pushed either from a 10th storey window or from the roof of the building while being interrogated and tortured by Security Police captains Hans Gloy and Faan van Niekerk. Both men have since died.
Judge Mothle found that Rodrigues, 80, who testified in both inquests that he had seen Timol jump, had been brought in afterwards to cover up Timol’s murder and lied under oath in both inquests. He recommended Rodrigues be prosecuted for his role in covering up the murder.
The inquest was re-opened after a long battle led by Timol’s nephew, Imtiaz Cajee, who was only five years old when his uncle was murdered.
Yasmin Sooka, the executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights, said it was important to place Rodrigues’ arraignment in the correct context.
“Nearly 20 years ago, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) final report recommended about 300 cases for further investigation and, potentially, prosecution. These were cases in which perpetrators of apartheid-era crimes – and those who gave the orders – were refused amnesty or chose not to take advantage of the country’s generous amnesty provisions.
“The TRC was a foundational component of post-apartheid South Africa’s restorative justice process. By failing to conduct follow-through investigations the state effectively shut down the process, failing victims and their families. This is just the second of those 300 cases to be brought to court.
“In the first matter, the murder of Nokuthula Simelane in 1983, four serving and former policemen were arrested in 2016. The trial has been delayed as the police tried, ultimately unsuccessfully, to avoid having to pay the costs of defending former members, arguing they were on a private frolic and not part of the former state’s death squads,“Sooka said.