Charge laid against Aggett cop
THE sister of an anti-apartheid activist who died in detention in the 1980s hopes that one of his interrogators will finally be brought to book, 32 years later.
Neil Aggett’s sister, Jill Burger, wants former security branch policeman Stephan Whitehead brought before a court to explain his “brutal behaviour”.
Aggett, a medical doctor and former trade unionist, was found hanging in his cell at John Vorster Square police station on February 5 1982 after 62 hours of continuous interrogation. He had been detained without trial for 70 days. This week, the Neil Aggett Support Group laid a private criminal charge of culpable homicide against Whitehead at Johannesburg Central police station.
According to the final Truth and Reconciliation report handed to the government 10 years ago, Whitehead and his superior, Major Arthur Cronwright, were “directly responsible” for Aggett’s condition that led him to taking his life. Neither applied for amnesty, nor did they apologise to Aggett’s family. Cronwright’s whereabouts are unknown.
“[Whitehead] has never given an explanation for his behaviour in 1982 and has never shown the tiniest bit of remorse,” said Burger in a statement to the Sunday Times.
Burger and her husband, who re- cently retired, live in a village near Oxford in the UK. The couple and their two children emigrated in 1983.
“We had been devastated by Neil’s death and the subsequent inquest and felt targeted by the security police. This was not a comfortable environment in which to raise our children.”
She wanted justice “and the opportunity to know that Whitehead is not at liberty to continue living an easy, carefree life after inflicting such terrible wounds on our family”.
Whitehead reportedly is working as a business counterintelligence consultant in Pretoria.
Burger said that when the TRC was established, she was hopeful that those involved in her brother’s interrogation “would come forward and shed some honest light on why he had been targeted and why he had been so severely tortured”.
“This did not happen. I continued to feel a very deep sense of injustice that the ‘new’ South Africa, where many of those who had suffered like Neil were in powerful positions, had made no move to bring these barbaric people to book.
“I also feel sad that my parents and my elder brother went to their graves never realising what an impact Neil’s life could have on others so long after his death. My father was particularly bitter that there had never been any effort to charge Whitehead with his murder, and on his deathbed my dad was still full of vengeance and wished that one day ‘they could get the bastards’.”
Burger said Rhodes University wished to name a building of its labour market research programme in honour of her brother.
“As Neil and I were both at school in Grahamstown and have always had a deep respect for the university and its links with the freedom movement in the Eastern Cape, I am delighted that Neil should be so honoured.”
The coordinator of the support group, Brian Sandberg, said it had laid the charge because “the people must finally hear the truth surrounding the circumstances of Neil’s death”. The group had also provided the Hawks with online links to the complete record of Aggett’s inquest.