People in the gallery of the High Court in Pretoria, among them family members, broke out in applause on Thursday (12 October) when Judge Billy Mothle ruled that anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol did not commit suicide. He was murdered by members of the police’s Security Branch.

Timol, who was born on 3 November 1941, was a Roodepoort resident and teacher at Roodepoort Indian School. He showed a keen interest in politics since the age of 15. In 1966 he went to Mecca for the Hajj and in 1967 he went to London where he was accommodated by other South African political exiles. There he joined the South African Communist Party (SACP) and in 1969 he left for Moscow. He studied at the Lenin Institute for a year before returning to South Africa where he became active in the underground liberation struggle.

On 22 October 1971, Timol was travelling with his friend Salim Essop, when the two were stopped at a roadblock. The police found banned literature in the boot of their car, arrested them and took them to the notorious John Vorster Square (now Johannesburg Central Police Station). They were separated and tortured for five days. The police then claimed that while alone with Security Branch Sergeant Joao (Jan) Rodrigues, Timol dashed for a window and jumped from the 10th floor. During the inquest that followed the judge found that the police’s version was indeed true.

Read more: Proposed street name changes addressed

But recently the inquest was reopened at the behest of his nephew, Imtiaz Cajee. Yesterday Mothle did not only rule that Timol was murdered, but also that Rodrigues committed perjury in both inquests and must be prosecuted for being an accessory to the murder after the fact. Timol’s two torturers, Captains Hans Gloy and Faan van Niekerk of the Security Branch have already passed away.

The City of Johannesburg is in the process of renaming Mare Street in Roodepoort CBD after Timol.

In 2015 Timol was the subject of a documentary by Little Falls director Enver Samuels titled Indians don’t fly.

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