Cape Town - There is excitement and trepidation in the family of anti-apartheid struggle activist Imam Abdullah Haron as, more than 50 years later, the re-opened inquest into the death of their father and grandfather begins this morning in the Western Cape High Court.
The inquest is set to run until November 18 and the hearings will proceed in open court before Judge Daniel Thulare.
Imam Haron’s grandson and family spokesperson Khalid Shamis said the family was very happy that the time had finally come.
“Our wish is that this inquest will formalise and put on record what we have known all along, which is that Imam Haron, our grandfather, was in 1969 assassinated in police custody by the apartheid state forces, the security police.”
He said the reopening of the inquest was not just a victory for the family or the community of Imam Haron, but for all victims of atrocities by the apartheid state who never got full recognition or the truth about what happened to their families.
“We are talking here about the Biko family, the Haffajee and Timol families, the Cradock Four families, and many others we don’t know.
“Hopefully this is a step towards opening up all of those cases and getting on the record finality of justice for South Africans and for comrades and anti-apartheid activists.”
In 2019, based on new evidence and other grounds, the Haron Family made representations to the national director of public prosecutions requesting the re-opening of the inquest.
Haron’s son, Muhammad, stated that the family considered doing so many years ago, but had little faith that the state would take action.
In the meantime, the two persons of material interest to the case, former Security Branch officers “Spyker” van Wyk and Dirk Genis, have died.
Although both Van Wyk and Genis have died, the re-opened inquest represents the family’s search for the truth about Imam Haron’s death at the hands of the security branch.
In June this year, Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola formally requested Judge President John Hlophe of the Western Cape High Court to designate a judge to reopen the inquest. Hlophe appointed Judge Thulare.
The Inquest Court will hear evidence from witnesses including former detainees, pathologists and a trajectory and aeronautical engineer.
Abdullah Haron, also known as Imam Haron, was known to be a progressive Islamic scholar and imam at the Stegman Road Mosque in Cape Town. He became increasingly critical of the apartheid government’s policies, which he opposed, and in the 1960s began to be involved in clandestine anti-apartheid activities.
To protect his family and congregation, he deliberately kept his political actions secret. He was known to have developed close ties with the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), a banned organisation at the time.
On May 28, 1969 Haron was arrested by the Security Branch of the SAP and held in solitary confinement at Caledon Square and Maitland police stations under section 6 of the Terrorism Act 83 of 1967.
The Haron family was told that he died on September 27, 1969. At the time of his death, Haron was 45. He was the first cleric of any faith to die in police detention in the apartheid state.
Due to the unnatural cause of death, an inquest was held in 1970, presided over by Magistrate JSP Kuhn.
The Security Police testified that Haron had slipped on stairs in the Caledon Square Police Station on September 19, 1969.
Pathologist Dr Percy Helman testified that a fall could not account for all the bruises and a broken rib reported in the official post-mortem report.
Dr Helman also testified that Haron would have been in severe pain due to his injuries and would have been unable to move during his last days.
The inquest finding said the cause or likely cause of death was “myocardial ischaemia: a likely contributing cause being a disturbance of the blood clotting mechanism and blood circulating due, in part, to trauma superimposed on a severe narrowing of a coronary artery.”
It added that a “substantial part” of the trauma was caused by an “accidental” fall down a flight of stairs.
The inquest magistrate further held that he was unable to determine how the balance of the trauma to Haron’s body was caused.
As a result, no one was held accountable for Haron’s death.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za