‘Impossible’ that Timol could have taken own life
The idea that his childhood friend and SACP ally Ahmed Timol would have committed suicide was just not possible, veteran politician and struggle hero Essop Pahad has told an inquest into Timol’s death 46 years ago.
Pahad testified in an inquest before Judge Billy Mothle in the High Court in Pretoria that he and Timol were childhood friends and that the young teacher had helped him financially after Pahad was put on the banned list.
They became very close while in exile together in London, where both were active members of the underground South African Communist Party (SACP).
Pahad said Timol was recruited as a member of the SACP and attended training at the Party School for nearly a year with former President Thabo Mbeki.
When Timol was asked to return to South Africa to work in the underground structures of the SACP, Pahad was the last person to talk to him before he left for the airport.
He said he had spoken to Timol about the dangers of arrest and torture by the security police and assured him that it would not be treacherous if he broke under torture.
He had advised Timol to hold out as long as he could and to give information gradually and incompletely so that those who worked with him could get a chance to flee or go into hiding. Timol was ready and not scared to go to prison.
Pahad said a so-called SACP document advising cadres to rather commit suicide than betray their comrades was “an absolute
fabrication” by the security police as it was never SACP policy.
He said Timol would never have committed suicide by jumping out of a 10th floor window at the secu- rity police’s headquarters as he was a devout Muslim who could not, in terms of Islamic tenets, commit suicide. He also had a girlfriend waiting for him back in London and was thinking of getting married.
Expert trauma surgeon Prof Ken Boffard testified that Timol had such severe head and spinal injuries and that nothing could have been done to save his life, but he was nevertheless surprised that the police had moved him almost immediately after he fell.
According to police statements, Timol was still alive after he fell, but died after being carried to the foyer in a blanket. This would have hastened his death, Boffard said.
He said Timol had numerous old bruises and fractured facial bones, which he thought were inflicted before he fell.