Former apartheid security branch officer Sergeant Joao “Jan” Rodrigues will appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday on a charge of murder in connection with the death of activist Ahmed Timol nearly 47 years ago.

This was confirmed on Sunday by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

“He will appear in Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court tomorrow‚ charged with murder and defeating the ends of justice‚” said NPA Gauteng spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane.

Eighty-year-old Rodrigues gave evidence in last year’s reopened inquest into Timol’s death in the Pretoria High Court which replaced the 1972 court’s suicide finding with one of murder.

He was a member of the security branch who pushed paperwork and administration and is the last known person to have seen Timol alive before the 29-year-old activist allegedly fell to his death from a 10th floor window at John Vorster Square (now known as Johannesburg central police station) in 1971.