Ex-cop in dock for Timol’s murder
MORE apartheid-era police officers could be charged and prosecuted for the murders of several political activists.
Minutes after 80-year-old retired sergeant Joao Rodrigues made his first court appearance for the 1971 murder of Ahmed Timol, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) revealed it was also eyeing other unsolved cases.
The Timol case has been hailed as historic because it dispelled claims by the apartheid regime that some activists committed suicide at its police stations.
Judge Billy Mothle ruled, at the high court in Pretoria last year, that Timol was killed by members of the security branch and did not commit suicide by jumping from the 10th floor of John Vorster Square, 46 years ago.
Mothle overturned a 1972 inquest ruling that found Timol had jumped to his death.
He recommended the prosecution of Rodrigues, who was present when Timol died and who had also testified before him.
“Rodrigues, on his own version, participated in the cover-up to conceal the crime of murder as an accessory after the fact, and went on to commit perjury by presenting contradictory evidence before the 1972 and 2017 inquests,” said Mothle. “He should accordingly be investigated with a view to his prosecution.”
The NPA has now slapped Rodrigues with charges of murder and defeating the ends of justice.
Rodrigues handed himself over yesterday morning to the same station, now named the Johannesburg Central Police Station, where Timol and several others met their deaths.
Some hours after being charged at the station, he applied for bail at the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court.
He cited his old age among other grounds for bail.
Magistrate Carlo Labuschagne set bail at R2 000 and transferred the matter to the high court in Joburg.
Phindi Mjonondwane, the NPA’s Gauteng spokesperson, said more apartheid-era crimes were being probed.
“We confirm as the NPA that this has brought so many other cases to life,” she said.
“(There is a) possibility of more arrests in other matters, where anti-apartheid activists were subjected to atrocities and brutalised.
“We also wish to congratulate the family of Timol for persistently knocking on every door to ensure that this day was realised,” Mjonondwane said.
Timol’s nephew, Imtiaz Cajee, who fought to have the case looked into, said more crimes by apartheid security branches should be uncovered.
“We should definitely not forget that Timol is not the only one,” Cajee said.
“We can’t forget the likes of the Cradock Four, the Gugulethu Seven, Matthew Mabelane, Dr Neil Aggett, Nokuthula Simelane, Imam Haroon, Suliman ‘Babla’ Saloojee and many many more.”
All these activists and others were believed to have been killed by the police. The trial of four officers arrested and charged for Simelane’s murder in 1983 was due to start soon.
Cajee asked: “Where are the killers responsible for Joe Gqabi, for Dulcie September … and those who meticulously planned out the Matola raid in Mozambique in 1981? Where are all those generals and commissioners?”
Panyaza Lesufi, the Gauteng education MEC, attended Rodrigues’s bail application. He described the case as a “bittersweet moment”.
“It’s bitter that we’re looking at a small fish. There are bigger fish who didn’t apply for amnesty. But sweet that there’s action,” Lesufi said.