Imam Haron’s reopened inquest heard closing arguments on Tuesday. [Picture: SABC]
Sitting on the red leather-cushioned benches of the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town, the family of the late Imam Abdullah Haron scrutinised documents before them. Judge Daniel Thulare is presiding over the reopened inquest into the death of the anti-apartheid activist.
On Tuesday, the court heard closing arguments in the reopened inquest into Haron’s death while in police detention. Accused of terrorism and held for four months, the Muslim scholar died in a Maitland cell on 27 September 1969.
The official story was that he died after falling down a flight of stairs. However, the family today maintains this is untrue and wants the court to declare it as a “pack of legal lies”.
Khalid Shamis, grandson to Haron, said the reopened inquest was meant to establish the truth for historical purposes.
“It’s an inquest to find out and establish a truth and to relate that historical record for the country … It’s not a prosecution and it’s not about any kind of compensation or anything like that. It’s just for the record.”
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Getting to the truth
The reopened inquest got underway towards the end of 2022 upon the request of Justice Minister Ronald Lamola. Haron’s family sought the overturn of a previous inquest that had determined his death was the result of injuries sustained from falling down a flight of stairs.
“That’s the official record at the moment. That obviously has to be overturned because we know he was murdered. He was tortured and he was killed. We need to put that on record,” said Shamis.
A 1970 inquest by magistrate JSP Kuhn accepted that Haron’s injuries were most likely caused while rounding the landing of steps at the Cape Town Central police station. This was despite the fact that he had 27 bruises on his body, congested kidneys and intestines, as well as cracked rib cartilage.
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Hope from Imam Haron’s inquest
Imam Haron’s daughter, Fatima Haron-Masoet, was confident the reopened inquest would “give hope to the hopeless”.
“We stand tall in giving hope to all the victims that are still waiting and their families who are dying trying to find and investigate their cases. We as a family want to give hope to the hopeless,” she said.
Haron-Masoet added it was also about South Africa and the world.
“We want to give hope to our nation and hope that this particular case will bring some kind of leverage not only to South Africa society but to the world over.”
