[Editor's note: This article was update for specificity and clarity. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.]
Cape Town - Fifty-five years after the martyrdom of Muslim cleric and anti-apartheid activist Imam Abdullah Haron, his family has shared more openly about the outcomes of the reopened inquest delivered last year, into their father’s death in police detention.
The Qibla Movement, founded by the late anti-apartheid activist Imam Achmad Cassiem, hosted the 55th annual commemoration of the Imam’s death, at Alexander Sinton High School, on Saturday.
The youngest daughter of Imam Haron, Fatiema Haron Masoet, delivered an address on behalf of her brother, professor Muhammed Haron, reflecting on their father’s murder 55 years on, and whether “justice had been done or seemingly done?”
She said, according to the outcome of the reopened inquest, Imam Haron was cruelly tortured every single day and in the end cold-bloodedly killed.
“This torturous painful deed was carried out by high-ranking members who were part of the dishonourable Security Branch ...
“They escaped public punishment and they arrogantly declined to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that was in session between 1995 and 1997.
“The unfinished business of the TRC should be dealt with, to support victim families and survivors in pursuing criminal accountability for apartheid-era gross human rights violations.
“The objective must be to bring closure to victims’ families and survivors and to address the culture of impunity in view of restoring the rule of law in SA.”
Haron Masoet said the family never doubted that the Imam was viciously treated while in detention for 123 days, since May 28 until September 27, 1969, held incommunicado under the 1967 Terrorism Act.
Why the reopened inquest, 53 years after the Imam’s murder was not set to an earlier date, was partly due to the Sunset Clause and political interference.
Cassiem’s daughter, Dr Wagheda Cassiem, said while her father had never met Imam Haron before, he was deeply impacted by the Imam’s passing and experienced the tremor that was felt and widely associated with the Imam’s funeral, while incarcerated on Robben Island.
“He didn't know what was actually happening. But subsequent to that, obviously he had found out that Imam Haron was murdered so that left a very traumatic mark on my father.
“More so, because when he was released in 1970, he found that no one, not even the clergy were talking about the murder of Imam Abdullah Haron. That really saddened him, so it became almost a mission for the Qibla Movement, for my father particularly, to make sure that the martyrdom of Imam Haron was going to be heard and known.”
shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za
Cape Argus