Cape Town - The “cold police cell” where anti-apartheid icon Imam Abdullah Haron spent his last moments will be visited on Tuesday as an in loco inspection forming part of the reopened death inquest which got under way in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
The inspection will be held with Judge Daniel Thulare, who is presiding over the inquest 53 years after the martyr died in police custody.
The inquest hearing got under way on Monday with investigating officer Daniel Petersen the first witness to take the stand.
He detailed his investigation into the Haron matter after being handed the case in August 2020.
Petersen told the court all documents relating to the death of Haron, who had been incarcerated for 123 days from May 28 until September 27, 1969 – having been arrested under the Terrorism Act – were only digital copies of the original inquest and that original case dockets and information “were not in existence”, a fact confirmed by two archive clerks.
Petersen also told the court that his search for occurrence registers, pocket and log books relating to Haron’s detention and the finding of his body in his cell on the morning of September 27 were unsuccessful after he was advised by SAPS legal services that “no record exists”.
Ahead of Tuesday’s inspection, Petersen confirmed that the police cell at Maitland Police station where Haron’s body was found was still located as it were in 1969, save for cosmetic changes such as a window no longer on the cell door as well as the cell now having a built-in bed and different positioning of the ablution facility.
Haron’s family, including his son Muhamed and two daughters Shamela and Fatima, through counsel, said they wanted “to do justice to the life and death” of their father, who suffered systematic torture and police brutality at the hands of members of the Security Branch while being detained, ultimately resulting in his demise.
“The autopsy noted that Haron had 27 bruises and a fractured rib. The Security Branch (SB) claimed that Haron was well treated.
“They denied any assault or abuse and claimed that these injuries were sustained during a fall down a staircase at Caledon police station (now Cape Town Central police station). We will demonstrate that this version was manufactured to mask the real cause of those injuries.
“The Haron family sat powerless as an intricate web of lies unfolded to protect the SB members responsible for Haron’s death.
All key officials played their role, either directly in the cover-up, or by averting their gaze or feigning ignorance.
“Aside from the interrogators themselves, these included senior SB officers, members of the uniform branch, the investigating officers, the district surgeons, the visiting magistrates and the prosecutor in the inquest.
They all played their part. They did what was expected of them,” the opening remarks of the family read.
The family noted that Haron, while in detention and not permitted to see family, had often smuggled out messages and, in one instance, “arranged for a message to be smuggled out on a piece of toilet paper to Canon Collins.
The message stated: ”If you hear that I have died in prison by accident, you will know it will not have been an accident.“
It is the family’s case that Haron was brutally assaulted while in detention after he complained of chest pains and headaches despite being in good health when he was incarcerated.
The initial inquest, conducted by Magistrate JSP Kuhn, found “that nobody was to blame for Haron’s death” and he had accepted the police’s submissions at the time that Haron had died due to injuries sustained after falling down a staircase despite the injuries not being consistent with such a fall.
In his opening remarks, Judge Thulare said the two weeks designated for the inquest, during which two “in loco” inspections will take place at the two police stations, hopes to “engage, in public, as it is, in a thorough, proper, full and fair investigation of the cause or likely cause of death of Imam Abdullah Haron and that we are in truth able to determine whether the death was brought about by any act or omission prima facie involving or amounting to an offence on the part of any person”.
Judge Thulare also called on members of the public who were able to provide relevant and material evidence that could assist in the inquest to come forward with their information.
According to the State’s opening remarks, two principle offences –murder and culpable homicide – will be considered.
“Murder would probably be considered on the basis of dolus eventualis, while culpable homicide would be whether the reasonable man would have foreseen the events that took place but neglected to take reasonable steps to forestall them.”
Cape Times