SABC targets smartphones
The broadcaster’s outrageous plan to hit South Africans who own smart devices and personal computers with additional TV licence fees is still on the table.
South African Communist Party (SACP) recruits, such as the Ahmed Timol, were trained to expect imprisonment as part of the struggle and were definitely not encouraged to commit suicide, former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils has testified.
Kasrils, who was part of the ANC’s and SACP’s top structures in the apartheid years, testified in the reopened inquest into Timol’s death 46 years ago after he plunged out of a 10th-storey window at John Vorster Square.
The first inquest into his death found that he had committed suicide and referred to a communist document advocating suicide rather than betraying the party.
Kasrils, who never met Timol, testified that Timol was recruited in London to start an underground SACP cell in SA and was not involved in the campaign to distribute communist pamphlets.
If Dr Salim Essop, who was caught with Timol, had been mistreated in custody, Timol’s torture would have been even greater because Essop had never been outside the country, while Timol had.
They would have regarded Timol as an important catch.
Kasrils was adamant that portions of the pamphlet advocating suicide had been faked by the security police. He said recruits were trained to hold out for as long as possible under torture and to look forward to long imprisonment as a badge of honour. Advocating suicide was definitely not part of the SACP’s doctrine. Businessperson Ali Thokan testified that he was at a filling station across from John Vorster Square on the morning of October 27, 1971, when he heard a thud and a pedestrian saying someone had fallen from John Vorster Square.
He approached to see if he could help but was chased away by plainclothes policemen, he said.
He was adamant that the incident was in the morning, although all police statements indicate that Timol had fallen at about 4pm.
The inquest continues.
They would have regarded Timol as a catch.