Cover-up claims on day 1 of Neil Aggett inquest
siviwe.feketha@inl.co.za
ALLEGATIONS of wholesale deception and deliberate cover-ups by the apartheid police and magistracy dominated the first day of the inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist and trade unionist Dr Neil Aggett, which started yesterday in Joburg.
Aggett, a medical doctor, was found hanging in his cell at John Vorster Square police station after being held in detention for 70 days in 1982.
Representing Aggett’s family, advocate Howard Varney said the family had been forced to walk a long and lonely journey to yesterday’s hearings, which came after Justice Minister Ronald Lamola instructed the Gauteng Division of the High Court to reopen the inquest last year.
“Both Neil’s parents, Aubrey and Joy Aggett, as well as Neil’s brother, Michael, went to their graves without learning the real story behind Neil’s death in detention. They had to live and die with a manifestly false official finding that nobody was to blame.
“Neil’s sister, Jill Burger, has championed the re-opening of this inquest on the Aggett family’s behalf,” Varney said.
Judge Motsamai Makume began with the proceedings yesterday, with about 24 former apartheid officers being of interest.
Efforts to track down some of the officers who were central in the operations at the John Vorster Square police station have however proven to be unsuccessful, while other former policemen have been confirmed dead.
Varney said the SAPS had to be instructed to provide the files of former security branch members.
“It is a little disturbing that the majority of these police files are missing and we think it may be necessary to call somebody from the relevant police department. The files include complete records of their careers as police officers and the cases they were involved in, and importantly, any complaints made against them – sometimes complaints of assault or criminal charges,” Varney said.
The National Prosecuting Authority’s Jabulani Mlotshwa said the State would demonstrate how any resistance to the oppressive government was obliterated by any means, lawful and unlawful, and how atrocities were covered up with the assistance of functionaries in government and the justice system.
“What we will also endeavour to show is the tendency of some prosecutors, doctors and even judicial officers to enable the unlawful and murderous actions of the special branch of the SAP,” Mlotshwa said.
Warrant Officer Frank Kgamanyane who has been tasked with investigating the Aggett matter, told the inquest inquiry that in the course of his investigation he had met Paul Erasmus, a former security branch official, who handed him a recording that he secretly made while in discussion with one of the interrogators who allegedly tortured Aggett.
“Erasmus alleges that he might have recorded the conversation with one of the chief interrogators, Lieutenant (Steve) Whitehead, and that it might contain valuable evidence regarding Dr Aggett,” Kgamanyane said.
Whitehead, who was accused of having tortured Aggett before his death, died of cancer in May last year.