Finally, proper inquest 53 years after imam tortured to death by security police

Fifty-three years after cleric Imam Abdullah Haron died at the hands of security police in Cape Town’s Maitland police station on September 27 1969, a proper inquest is finally on the way.

The department of justice announced on Tuesday it had asked judge president of the Western Cape high court John Hlophe to designate a judge to reopen Haron’s March 1970 inquest which, like all apartheid-era inquests into any death in detention, found a “natural” cause of death and exonerated all involved.

In Haron’s case, magistrate JSP Kuhn found that an alleged fall down a flight of less than a dozen stairs was the primary cause of the imam’s death — a lack of blood flow to his heart. The judgment found that Haron died of “myocardial ischemia ... due to, in part, trauma superimposed on a severe narrowing of a coronary artery”.

However, pathologist Dr Percy Helman told the inquest that all the 27 bruises could not have been caused by the alleged fall and that Haron would have suffered so much pain from his injuries he would have been unable to move. Helman also said his injuries caused the blood to clot in the imam’s body.

Magistrate Kuhn could not, and did not, account for all Haron’s injuries, which apart from the 27 bruises, included a broken rib, internal bleeding at the base of his spine and an empty stomach (he had fasted every day during his detention to remain conscious of God, and his wife Galiema Sadan-Haron would bring him soup every evening). A few days before his death, the security police prevented her from seeing him.

The drama began on May 28 1969, when two large security policemen brought the imam home, manhandled Haron into his house then ransacked it. Galiema and his daughter, Fatiema, aged six, looked on aghast.

Then they took him away — forever. One of them was known as Sergeant “Spyker” van Wyk, so named because of his habit of driving nails (spykers in Afrikaans) into the bodies of his torture victims. The other was probably Dirk Genis, who with Van Wyk led the interrogation of Haron, detained under section 6 of the Terrorism Act.

Haron had looked at his wife over his shoulder and said to her: “Moenie wurrie nie Liema, ek is nou terug (Don’t worry Liema, I will be back soon),”  before he disappeared with the two security branch cops, both of whom are now dead.

After 123 days in solitary confinement, being beaten, tortured and psychologically abused, Haron died. Two days later, on September 29, his family and at least 30,000 mourners accompanied his bruised and broken body 10km to the Mowbray Muslim Cemetery, watched and photographed by security branch police, who were intimidating the crowd. It was the biggest funeral Cape Town had ever witnessed. His death sent shock waves around the world. Strangely, that night there was a rare earthquake registering 6.3 on the Richter scale that shook Cape Town, with the epicentre at Tulbagh.

A few days later, on October 6 1969, he became the first Muslim to be commemorated at St Paul’s Cathedral, where he had befriended Canon John Collins, who referred to Haron as a martyr, noting his message of justice and peace across racial and religious divides. Verses from the Koran were quoted in the cathedral, and Haron’s death was discussed in the UN.

After Haron’s death, the state claimed the law did not recognise their Islamic marriage, so Galiema could not inherit his estate. Galiema had to sell their house, saying she could not afford the maintenance costs. It was only in 1971 that she bared her soul to the media, saying she had been forced to sell and to withdraw her R22,000 damages lawsuit against the ministers of police and justice because Haron’s father’s health had deteriorated.

In 2014 Haron was posthumously awarded the Order of Luthuli (Gold) for his “exceptional contribution to raising awareness of political injustices”.

Before Galiema lost her ability to talk at the end of 2018, she told her family they could reopen the case so they might find closure.

On September 9 2019 the Al Jammia mosque and the imam’s grave were declared provincial heritage sites. The family also decided to request the inquest be reopened. The imam’s son, Muhammad, had said earlier he had “little faith in the state”.

For inquests to be reopened, the families of apartheid victims must prove to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) that evidence exists that warrants a new inquest.

“It is not for us to lick the state’s arse,” said Muhammad in 2019. “They want us to beg them first to basically do that [open the inquest].”

Muhammad was only 13 when he stared at his father’s body, the bruises and blood imprinting themselves vividly on his brain, while his sister Fatiema stood lost and confused next to her mother. Galiema had instructed their elder sister Shamila to stay in London, fearing she would be detained if she returned.

Born in Newlands-Claremont on February 8 1924 to Asa Martin and Amarien Haron and the youngest of five children, Haron was primarily raised by his aunt, Maryam, after the death of his mother when he was an infant.

Haron was tutored in Islamic studies by a number of eminent Islamic scholars. After passing standard six at Talfalah Primary School he travelled to Mecca, where he was taught by Sheikh Alawi al-Maliki. He returned to Cape Town after two years and continued his studies with Sheikh Abdullah Taha Gamieldien and Shaykh Ismail Ganief. He could recite the Koran off by heart by the age of 14. Haron also taught at a local Muslim school. He befriended members of the teaching and building trade, and communist organisations. During this time his political activism began.

He had an impish sense of humour, wore his fez at a rakish angle and fancied fashionable clothes.

On March 15 1950 Haron married Galiema Sadon.

In 1955, at the age of 32, he was appointed to lead the Al-Jaamia congregation at the Stegman Road Mosque in Cape Town. He was one of the youngest imams in SA and was considered very progressive, speaking out fearlessly against apartheid and encouraging the youth to organise. He had an impish sense of humour, wore his fez at a rakish angle and fancied fashionable clothes.

He worked to raise the consciousness of his congregation and of the wider Muslim community, forging ties with non-Muslims, including Christians, communist groups and other faiths and organisations.

He was employed at Rowntree-Wilson, the British sweets-maker, and this gave him cover to visit the black townships of Nyanga, Langa and Gugulethu to organise. He founded and edited Muslim News, the first Muslim community newspaper, and organised nonracial sports.

The Sharpeville massacre in 1960 was a game-changer. Haron met Pan African Congress (PAC) member and activist Barney Desai. In 1965 he was affected by the Group Areas Act and was forced to move from Jefferson Road, Lansdowne, to Repulse Road in the demarcated coloured suburb of Athlone. Haron gave a number of speeches and sermons against apartheid policies and laws, including a notable speech at the Cape Town Drill Hall on May 7 1961, where he described the Group Areas Act as “inhuman, barbaric and un-Islamic”.

Haron had begun taking part in clandestine anti-apartheid operations. To protect his family and congregation, he kept his political actions secret, but he is known to have developed close ties with the ANC and PAC (both organisations were banned in 1960) as well as the Black Sash.

Between 1966 and 1968, Haron is believed to have travelled secretly to Egypt to meet political exiles and the World Islamic Council. He travelled to London, where at St Paul’s Cathedral he met clerics who were raising funds for the families of detained or exiled activists. In the Netherlands he met with the director of the International University Exchange Fund, Lars Gunner Erickson. While abroad he was informed he had become a Security Branch target and was advised to emigrate. He returned to Cape Town, concerned about his father’s ill health. Canada rejected his application to emigrate.

These overseas visits were a key concern to the security police, who accused him of consorting with “terrorists”. The story of his detention was a familiar one to anyone who has been detained by the security police.

After he refused to answer their questions he was beaten almost unconscious. Taken to the Bellville district surgeon on June 29, Dr Viviers didn’t question his injuries but sent him back with a few pain pills.

A few days later, Haron was savagely attacked in his cell. Another doctor who didn’t cause trouble with the police said Haron was “suffering from flu”.

On August 11 he was moved to Maitland, but 10 days later he was taken back to Caledon Square for a day for further interrogation. This time, he was shocked with electrodes attached to his genitals. He passed out. On September 17 he was again brought to Caledon Square, where a needle was inserted into the lower part of his spinal column.

This led to Haron being plagued by migraine headaches, worsened by food deprivation. He begged for a doctor but was denied one. Days later, he was dead.

The marks on the imam’s body clearly showed he had been tortured. Those marks will never die, just as the influence of Haron on his community and SA will never die.

Haron’s 93-year-old widow Galiema died on the 50th anniversary of her husband’s funeral on September 29 2019 without seeing justice for her husband’s torture and death. They were buried in the same grave.

Fatiema Haron-Masoet now guards the sacrificial legacy of her father through the Imam Haron Foundation and two heritage sites, which she feels commemorate all who were killed by the apartheid system.

Visual artist Haroon Gunn-Salie has created several works as memorials to Haron, including the 2019 installation Crying for Justice in the grounds of the Castle of Good Hope, symbolising 118 unmarked graves, one for each person who died in detention during the apartheid years.

The families of other victims have joined forces with the Haron family as the Victims’ Support Group, which includes Imtiaz Cajee on behalf of the family of Ahmed Timol, Fort Calata and the other families of the Cradock Four, Thembi Nkadimeng on behalf of Nokuthula Simelane, Lasch Mabelane on behalf of Mathews Mabelane, Sarah Lall on behalf of Hoosen Haffejee and Jill Burger on behalf of Neil Aggett.

Just as the reopened inquests of Timol and Aggett found the security police responsible for their deaths, it is highly likely this will be the outcome of this new inquest. But once again, the perpetrators, “Spyker” van Wyk and Dirk Genis, are dead and have evaded justice.

The NPA needs to move with speed to bring to court the surviving perpetrators of at least 300 crimes against humanity that were referred to them by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission more than two decades ago. Reconciliation cannot occur without it.