Human Rights Violation Hearings — Johannesburg — 1996-04-30

MS TIMOL: I told them that I do not believe that my son had committed suicide and I showed them the window of my room and I told them it is impossible for him to have jumped and that they did not look after him and they told me that he had jumped and had dis that he worked there for 24 years and that a post mortem normally takes 20 minutes but this is the first time it had taken four hours.
 The call for prayer on Friday then went on and after the Friday prayer they bathed the deceased and brought the deceased's body home.  I then saw the son and I had noticed that he had been assaulted and was full of blood and that the whole face was covered in blood.  At about quarter past 
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three they took the funeral.  They hit my son tremendously.  They arrested him on a Friday and they killed him and said that he committed suicide.  I want to know who assaulted him and I want to know who lodged the complaint about my son.  It took me quite a bit of difficulty to raise my children.  It is 25 years now and that I will not forget what happened.  I ask the Almighty that I will not forget what happened and that I need to know who lodged the complaint and what happened.  I will not forget what happened, I need to know.

DR RANDERA: Thank you very much Auntie Hawa, please contain yourself and then I will ask you further questions.

MS TIMOL: My other son was arrested.  I had told them that you people have already killed my one son, I need to know what happened to the other son, and they told me that I will not see them.  They asked to see my husband and they were told that he could not come as he was sitting for prayer.  Mr Buys and Mr Ficks and the third policeman I can't remember his name.  They asked me about the whereabouts of my husband and I told them that he was in the mosque and that my son was taking food to him and they insisted that my husband should come home.  I told them that he could not come as he was sitting in mosque for a period of ten days. And they told me that my other son in Durban, if I wanted to see him I could see him tonight if he would work for us and that the public should not know and they then said that they wanted to see my husband.  We took them to the mosque.
(The Interpreter asks the witness to talk a bit slower so that it could be interpreted correctly).
 Thereafter I took them to the mosque and someone came out from the mosque and called my husband and they told my husband that if he wanted to see my son, they spoke in 
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English and in Afrikaans, and told him that if you want to see the son in Durban then he's got to work for us and that the public should not know about it that he's working for us.  I told them that if my body had a zip they could open the zip to see how I was aching inside.  My late husband could not speak and Buys gave him the telephone number and said phone me in Pretoria and ask for Mr Buys, and said that my son will come back tonight.  
 They interrogated us tremendously thereafter and I still need to know who killed my son and how is it possible that he would jump from the tenth floor to commit suicide.  He was a teacher at the Indian school and was well liked by the pupils.  And I cannot be expected to forgive at this stage.  They hit him very badly.  They ripped off all his nails and the coffin was also filled with blood.

DR RANDERA: Thank you very much Auntie Hawa. Mohammed we will come back to your mother after she has had a bit of a rest.  I understand you also want to make a statement, so I hand over to you.

MOHAMMED TIMOL: Thank you Commissioners.  I basically want to scommitted suicide.  She refused to accept the fact that the inquest findings stated that the bruises that were on his
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body were prior to his detention.  She maintains that he was beaten to death and he did not commit suicide.
 She further wants that in the name of Ahmed that his school in Azaduo(?) be named after him.  This was actually a popular feeling of the community where he taught.  They felt that the school should be renamed after him, and this is what she is requesting.
 Further she believes that she cannot forgive.  She doesn't know who to forgive and she believes that she can never, ever forget what actually happened to her son.  For now that is all I would like to say.

DR BORAINE: Mohammed thank you very much.  I wonder if I can actually just ask a few questions of you and I don't want this to be interpreted as being rude to your mother, but if she wants to listen to the questions in Gujerati she would have to put the headphone on.
 Mohammed we've heard many a time in the stories that have been told so far in the last two and a half weeks how often the mothers, parents, did not know what their sons, daughters were doing in terms of what we know as a struggle during those years.  I have known both you and in some ways your brother many years ago too, and I was wondering if you would be able to say a little more about your brother, because we have heard from your mother that he was a teacher at Roodepoort School and that at the time of his death that is where he was teaching, but perhaps you could just give us a little more testimony as to who your brother was and what his involvement was that led to his arrest and subsequent death.

MR H TIMOL: Thank you very much Commissioners.  I am actually very pleased that you have asked this question.
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Living now in a democratic South Africa it affords us an opportunity to actually relate contributions of individuals, one is able to relate the contributions of individuals to bring about a democratic dispensation in South Africa.
 To start off I would like to say that Ahmed grew up in a very religious orthodox family of the Islamic faith.  He grew up at a time when there was intense oppression in South Africa, and as a young Indian Moslem he too became affected by what was happening in this country, the injustices committed against the vast majority of the people of South Africa, those who were not White.
 In his early years he became influenced by the political situation and he became a young activist of the Indian Congress.  He completed his schooling and went for training to become a schoolteacher.  ...(tape ends)  South Africa on exit permit to live in exile.  It seemed that this really affected him tremendously.
 In 1966 at the young age of 24 he left South Africa and went to Mecca to perform Hadj which is compulsory for every adult Moslem.  After completing his Hadj he thereafter went to England and he lived with his very close friends Essop Pahad and Aziz Pahad.  Aziz Pahad is presently the deputy foreign minister of this country.  And Essop Pahad is a member of Parliament.  
 The three years that he spent in England he taught as a schoolteacher in London and through his contact of meeting other people in London I think he finally reached a decision that he had to return to South Africa to participate in the underground struggle.
 It was during this period he also came into contact with a prominent South African Indian by the name of Dr 
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Yusuf Dadoo, I am sure all of us do know him or have heard of him.  I think it was Ahmed's commitment to bring about a just society that he felt that he had to return to South Africa during a very dark period when the security police and the securocrenjoying is as a result of Bubla Salojee, Ahmed Timol, Hector Petersen and many, many countless and thousands of other young and old, men and women, who have made it possible for us to sit here today and listen to testimonies of mothers and relatives who have lost their loved ones in the cause of the struggle in this country.
 Thank you.