Ex-cop ‘torture master’ – Duarte
HE HAS ‘POLITICALLY EXPEDIENT MEMORY’
Reopened inquest into death of Ahmed Timol will resume on Thursday.
The ANC’s deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte has hit back at the denials of former apartheid-era security policeman Seth Sons that he never tortured or assaulted anyone, describing him as “the torture master”.
Sons was the last witness to testify in the reopened inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol, who died on October 27, 1971 after falling from a 10th-storey widow at John Vorster Square while in the custody of the security police.
Timol was a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and was suspected of being behind a successful campaign to spread SACP and ANC pamphlets all over South Africa.
A 1972 inquest found that Timol had committed suicide but his family convinced the NPA to reopen the inquest after uncovering evidence pointing to his torture and possible murder.
In his evidence, Sons echoed the testimony of former security police pay clerk Jan Rodrigues and former warrant officer Neville Els.
Rodrigues said Timol had dived through the window without saying a word while Els insisted he had no knowledge of political detainees being assaulted and tortured in that time.
Sons, 80, was confronted with statements by two former political detainees who said he had forced one of them to stand naked and had slapped the other one while questioning him. Sons said he could remember no such incidents.
Duarte, whose family were anti-apartheid activists, accused Sons of having a “politically expedient memory”.
“He forgot that he made me kneel next to my brother Achmat [Dangor] as his goons from the SB [Security Branch] searched our house for six hours.
“He refused my grandmother on the same day entrance to the toilet and she wet herself. He slapped my mother when she wanted to hug her sister, who was handcuffed.
“Sons, your office was on the ninth floor of John Vorster Square. You know what took place in that space.
“You stood with folded arms as chair backs were used as racks and as many of us were choked, smacked or kicked. You watched as pee ran down our legs because you made us stand for hours.
“You cannot say you did not torture, you were the torture master,” she said.
Sons retired as a lieutenant-colonel from the security police after a career of 30 years.
The inquest will resume on Thursday. –