Officers colluded to hide doctor’s injuries

FORMER Security Branch (SB) police officer Mohun Gopal has told the reopened inquest into the death of Dr Hoosen Haffejee that officers at the Brighton Beach police station colluded with high-ranking SB officers to hide the extent of Haffejee’s injuries when he was booked into his cell.

This comes as Gopal revealed to the inquest’s chairperson, Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Zaba Nkosi, that when he left the police station, on the evening of August 2, 1977, before midnight, Haffejee did not have any injuries on his arms.

Gopal was surprised on Tuesday when shown a photograph of Haffejee wearing a long-sleeved chequered shirt, stating that when he left the station, the 26-yearold Pietermaritzburg dentistwas wearing a short-sleeved safari suit and that the long sleeves could have been to hide the injuries on his arms when he was booked into his cell.

Evidence leader advocate Howard Varney put it to Gopal that the charge office sergeant’s evidence indicated that Haffejee had been injury-free at the time he was put in the cells, and that no one else had access to the cells, as they were the only people with the keys. However, Gopal told the court he did not believe this and there could have been collusion to lie about Haffejee not having any injuries.

“There’s no other way. The charge office staff would have had to collaborate with the SB officers. The most likely suspects were Petrus du Toit, Jimmy Taylor, Andy Taylor – they were the top-ranking officers and would have gained access by securing the keys,” Gopal said.

He said three charge office officers had access to the keys and something did take place because someone had put a long-sleeved shirt on Haffejee after he was put in the cells to hide the injuries to his arms.