Apartheid crimes: Was an accord made to protect perpetrators?

Nephew of slain anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol has asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to reveal if the ANC leadership had cut a secret deal with the apartheid authorities over perpetrators of apartheid atrocities.

In an open letter to Ramaphosa on Thursday, Imtiaz Ahmed Cajee wrote: “Comrade President, as a leader of the historic negotiations, with Roelf Meyer and others, that led to the advent of democracy in 1994, I beg you for enlightenment on the terms of the secret deal. Not just the families who lost loved ones, but millions of South Africans victimised by the apartheid system deserve to know.”

Timol was murdered by police while detained at John Vorster Square police station in October 1971. After being tortured he was pushed out of the window on the tenth floor and fell to his death. Police at the time claimed he jumped.

One of the apartheid security policemen involved in the killing, Joao Rodrigues, was charged after the Timol inquest was reopened recently. Rodrigues had not applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for amnesty and was therefore liable for prosecution.

But it’s now alleged that Rodrigues was granted amnesty under some “secret agreement”.

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This is the alleged issue Cajee, who had researched the activist’s murder for decades, is seeking clarity on from Ramaphosa.

After the first inquest conducted by the apartheid authorities in 1972 – that found Timol committed suicide in jail – was overturned by the post-apartheid high court, a fresh inquest was reopened by the NPA in 2017 – 45 years after Timol’s death.

Rodrigues was charged in July 2018, and appeared in court numerous times. He applied for a permanent stay of prosecution, which was rejected by a full bench of the high court. He also lost at the Supreme Court of Appeal, which granted him a further leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court.

But Rodrigues died in September before the ConCourt could set a date.

Cajee said he wrote to Ramaphosa in the light of Friday’s death of former president FW de Klerk and fears by many apartheid victims that the truth would never be known.

Among disgruntled families were those of the Cradock Four and the family of the slain former uMkhonto weSizwe cadre Nokuthula Simelane. Simelane’s sister Thembi Nkadimeng, who is deputy minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, said although De Klerk qualified for a state funeral, he did not deserve it.

ALSO READ: De Klerk qualifies for a state funeral, but he doesn’t deserve one, says Thembi Nkadimeng

Last month on the 50th anniversary of Timol’s death, comrades and friends gathered at the Roodepoort Cemetery and outside Johannesburg Central Police Station, to commemorate him. “I could not bring myself to attend these events. To me, it’s been 50 years of secrets, lies, cover-ups and dead ends – each forward step raising a swirl of new unanswered questions that remain unanswered till this day. I therefore paid tribute to my uncle on my own,” Cajee said.

The reopened Timol inquest recommended the prosecution of Rodrigues.

Cajee was baffled by the fact that, although Roderiques was charged and his appeal rejected, he was granted appeal to proceed to the Constitutional Court.

“He had no financial constraints because his legal team was paid by the state,” Cajee said.

Cajee claims the issue of an “informal agreement between the ANC leadership and the pre-1994 government” was referred to in an undated press release by the FW de Klerk Foundation backing up Rodrigues’ application. The release followed the NPA and police announcement to appoint a dedicated unit to investigate TRC cases earlier this year.

Cajee said Ramaphosa failed to respond to correspondences sent to the Presidency by the Apartheid-Era Victims Family Group (AVFG) in 2019 and 2021, and by former TRC commissioners. Cajee “implored” Ramaphosa to break his silence on possible “informal agreements” between the apartheid state and the ANC.

– ericn@citizen.co.za