The widow of anti-apartheid activist Imam Abdullah Haron died with a broken heart while searching for answers about how her husband died in police custody.
This was revealed on Monday when the high court in Cape Town reopened the inquest into Haron’s death. The first inquest was held in 1970.
Additional Cape Town magistrate JSP Kuhn, who presided over the hearing, found that no-one was to blame for Haron’s death.
Haron died in the police cells at Maitland police station. He was arrested under the notorious Terrorism Act and was interrogated and detained by the security branch (SB) at the then Caledon Square police station, now called the Cape Town central police station, and “occasionally in his cell at Maitland police station and possibly other undisclosed places”.
He died on September 27 1969 after 123 days of incarceration.
For the past 53 years, Haron’s family has been fighting for justice.
Western Cape judge president John Hlophe appointed judge Daniel Thulare to preside over the inquest in June after justice minister Ronald Lamola’s request to do so.
Advocate Howard Varney, representing Haron’s family, said the imam’s wife died without closure in 2019.
“Haron’s wife Galiema died at the age of 93 on September 29 2019, exactly 50 years to the day after her beloved husband was buried,” said Varney.
He said the couple’s children told him that she went to the grave without the closure she deserved.
“Fortunately, in court today are three of the children of Galiema and Imam Haron: Shamela Shamis, Muhamed Haron and Fatima Masoet,” he said.
He was held in detention for 123 days without being permitted to see his family, private doctor or lawyer.
— Advocate Howard Varney, representing Haron’s family
“Fatima was only six-years-old when her father died. Muhamed was 12 and Shamela was 18. Shamela was living in the UK and was unable to attend her father’s funeral which took place in terms of Islamic law as soon as the body was released to the family.”
Haron was born in 1924 in Newlands, Cape Town. He married Galiema in 1950 and was appointed Imam of Al-Jamia Mosque in Stegman Road, Claremont in 1955. He was 45 when he died.
“He also maintained close contact with activists such as Albie Sachs and Robert Sobukwe. Haron raised funds for the Coloured People’s Congress which was banned by the apartheid regime in 1960,” said Varney.
In 1965, the security police identified Haron as a security risk and they “began to rail the family home and mosque looking for incriminating material. His bank accounts were also scrutinised”.
He was arrested on May 28 1968.
“That evening he was escorted to his home to collect his personal effects including his toothbrush and nightclothes and informed he was to be detained indefinitely. He was held in detention for 123 days without being permitted to see his family, private doctor or lawyer,” said Varney.
“While in detention, Haron arranged for a message to be smuggled out on a piece of toilet paper to Canon Collins. The message stated, ‘if you hear that I have died in prison by accident, you will know that it will not have been an accident’. The constant refrain of the SB was that Haron ‘never complained’. They claimed he always ‘looked well’ and ‘when asked he said he was fine’.”
But a post-mortem showed that Haron had 27 bruises and a fractured rib. The security branch claimed that Haron fell down a staircase at the Caledon police station. Though Haron’s family welcomed the reopening of the inquest, they felt it was decades late.
“This reopened inquest come too late for Galiema. However, it is of great meaning to Shamela, Muhamed, Fatima and the wider community. They have lived with the stain of a fraudulent inquest finding for more than 50 years. It is time for that stain to be wiped clean. We are confident that this inquest will shine a light on what Imam Haron endured during his 123 days of security detention back in 1969. Imam Haron died for our freedom. It can never be too late for the truth,” Varney said.
State advocate Lifa Matyobeni dismissed Kuhn’s finding as “fraud”.
He said the inquest will look at statements, documents and other information, related to Haron’s death, in the state’s possession.
“They contain copies of contents of the original inquest record with exhibits as well additional material,” said Matyobeni.
It could not have been an easy 53 years for the Haron family, waiting for this day to come. I am privileged and humbled to be part of the NPA that is now alive to the plight of South Africans who suffered under the apartheid regime.
— State advocate Lifa Matyobeni
“All the information in those files must be considered by the court and the court will also hear the evidence of the witnesses whose names appear on the schedule. There are eyewitnesses who will testify about the time of Mr Haron’s detention, what they saw before and on that tragic morning of September 27 1969.”
The court will conduct an inspection in loco at the Cape Town central police station and Maitland police station on Tuesday.
“There will be inspection in loco evidence. The photographs taken of the deceased inside the cold cell are filed in a separate file and I ask that this file be used discretely to not traumatise the family or other people,” said Matyobeni.
“There will be much technical evidence led by the interested parties in an attempt to establish what caused the death of Mr Haron. The determination of the cause of his death is fundamental to the inquiry into whether any offence has been committed.”
Matyobeni added: “We will submit later that a massive and deliberate fraud was perpetrated by the state machinery in the 1970 inquest, and as such it demands justice to prevail.” He said the state will poke holes in the state branch cops’ version.
“What we will attempt to show is the inconsistency in the version provided by the security branch police who were the only witnesses called to testify on the unaccounted injuries on Mr Haron’s body. We seek to give effect to the audi partem rule,” he said.
“It could not have been an easy 53 years for the Haron family, waiting for this day to come. I am privileged and humbled to be part of the NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) that is now alive to the plight of South Africans who suffered under the apartheid regime and did not benefit from the sacrifices of their loved ones, and is willing and able to make amends.”
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