Haffejee was ‘too weak’ to commit suicide
AS THE reopened inquest into the death of Dr Hoosen Haffejee's August 1977 death draws to a close, the hearing was told by a key witness yesterday that Haffejee was too weak to have committed suicide.
Giving evidence before Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Zaba Nkosi, former Security Branch police officer Mohun Gopal, who was a junior constable at the time of Haffejee's death, said information around Haffejee's death had been fabricated.
Haffejee was arrested by members of the Security Branch on August 1, 1977 while on his way from Pietermaritzburg to work at the King George V Hospital in Sydenham, seven kilometres west of Durban.
Some 20 hours later he was discovered hanging in his cell at the Brighton Beach police station.
The 1978 inquest his death, presided over by magistrate Trevor Blunden, concluded that he had committed suicide.
Gopal said that no paperwork had been done when Haffejee was brought in by his colleagues.
“He wasn't booked in or even taken to an office. He was taken to the basement. I wondered what was going on as no protocol was being followed,” he said.
However, yesterday Gopal said the suicide claim around Haffejee's death was a fabrication in the same vein as allegations around the deaths of other anti-apartheid activists at the hands of the Security Branch, including those of Umkhonto we Sizwe operative Joseph Mdluli and anti-apartheid activist Dr Rick Turner.
“I will never ever believe that Dr Haffejee took his own life, and the reason I am saying that is with all the beating that he had received during the day and into the night, plus he was a very thin person, he was weak, weak, weak, weak, weak.
“He was so weak he was trembling, he was shivering and he did not have the energy to do that type of... I do believe that he twisted himself to death, that's all I can say,” Gopal said.
He said the investigation into Haffejee's death was “one big fabrication” in terms of the results that had come out of the first inquest.
Gopal added that he had to play his part in the fabrication around Haffejee's death and that of Umlazi lawyer Griffiths Mxenge and that this was the norm in the Security Branch where he and his colleagues were regularly told to assist in cover-ups.
He spoke of how Haffejee had been assaulted and, when shown pictures of Haffejee in a long-sleeved chequered shirt, he appeared surprised, questioning whether it was Haffejee in the photo, saying he had only seen him wearing a short-sleeved safari suit and that the long-sleeved shirt would have been to hide the bruises and injuries on his arms.
“This is a surprise. This is what he wasn't wearing. This could have been put on after I left. He was wearing his short-sleeve safari suit when I left. This shirt was to cover up the injuries on his arms.
“When you are assaulting someone so seriously, if the person did not die, then there was an attempt made to murder a person. That type of an assault was not one or two slaps, this was brutal and can be construed as you were trying to kill a person,” Gopal said.