The Johannesburg high court has found that anti-apartheid activist Ernest Moabi Dipale didn’t die of suicide — his death was the result of the actions of security branch police at John Vorster Square.
Judge Motsamai Makume delivered the judgment at the reopened inquest hearing on Tuesday.
Dipale was found hanging while in detention at John Vorster Square, now Johannesburg Central police station, on August 8 1982.
His death was declared a suicide by the inquest hearing concluded in June 1983.
Dipale was arrested by security branch officers with his colleague, Aaron Oupa Koapeng, at their place of work in Meadowlands on August 5 1982. This was six months after the death of Neil Aggett in prison, in similar circumstances.
This was allegedly a day after Joseph Mamasela and some of his colleagues attempted to kill them in Mofolo, Soweto. Mamasela was an apartheid government spy and assassin.
National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said judge Makume remarked that, as a result of his height, Dipale would have needed a chair to hang himself as the toilet seat inside the cell where he was found hanging was far from the window and grill he was hanging from.
The judge dismissed the allegation that Dipale hanged himself, and added that detention cells were patrolled every half-hour so Dipale would have been seen if he had tried to kill himself.
Mjonondwane said: “The judge reflected on evidence by Gary Paul Hunter, CEO at Aranda Textile, that the blankets used by detainees were strong and could not be torn by bare hands, leaving no reasonable explanation about how Dipale could have used the blanket to hang himself and why he would have taken his clothes off.” (Dipale was found in his underwear.)
She said judge Makume quoted from advocate George Bizos’s book titled No One to Blame when he (Bizos) referred to the conduct of magistrates in the apartheid era who had no real desire to reach the truth but saw it as their duty to protect organs of the state such as the police.
The judge said that Mamasela and Deetlefts’ movements from August 5-8 1982 should be followed up as he suspected that they were involved in Dipale’s death.
“The NPA continues in its efforts to deal with cases stemming from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The NPA will move with speed to study the judgment and act on the judge’s recommendations. The NPA also commends advocate Mothibe and Mlotshwa for the outstanding work done in the inquest,” said Mjonondwane.
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