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Just moments before Ahmed Timol fell to his death he was allegedly sipping on a cup of coffee, without any bruises or marks on his face.
This is according to the testimony from 78-year-old Joao Rodrigues, who claims to have seen Timol jump to his own death from room 1026 on the 10th floor at the infamous John Vorster Square building in 1971.
Rodrigues told the North Johannesburg High Court in Pretoria this afternoon that he was the last person to see Timol alive, and that his controversial death was a result of suicide and not foul play, which is what has been alleged by the Timol family over the years.
The officers who were on duty that day overseeing Timol were Hans Gloy and JZ van Niekerk.
Rodrigues said entered the room and took a seat at the table after handing out salary cheques to them. He saw Timol but did not know who he was at that point.
“I could see his face from the side. I wanted to leave but he [Gloy] asked me to stay. At that moment, somebody entered the room and said aloud that there were other people who were also arrested and I can’t remember their names,” he said.
The following are the events which transpired according to Rodrigues’s testimony: “That person left the room and Timol was in a state of shock. His eyes were big and he was shaking his head and he was looking at the three of us. Hans Gloy and Van Niekerk looked at each other and Gloy nodded his head and asked Van Niekerk to accompany him outside. At that point in time Gloy asked me to guard Timol.
“I sat where Gloy was seated, on the opposite side of Timol and the two of them left the room. They told me they were not going to be long and I must just keep guard. Gloy and Van Niekerk left the room. I did not know where they were going.
“Timol stared out to one side. We never spoke to each other. A few minutes later, we were alone in the office and Timol asked me to take him to the toilet. It was a very reasonable request to me. We got up from our chairs. I went on the left side of the table where Van Niekerk was seated. The chair was halfway out and I pushed the chair back underneath the table and my eyes were looking down on the chair. The same moment I saw a movement from the right side of my eye. I looked up quickly and I saw Timol moving on to the other side of the table very fast.
“It all happened in a split second. I had to decide whether I was going to follow him on the left hand side of the table. This happened in split seconds. I wanted to stop Timol, but my chair was in my way. And I then went into the chair and lost my balance and I fell to the ground and tumbled.
“But on my way to Timol I saw him open the window and I saw him dive through the window. And I then fell on the ground and when I jumped up I realised that Timol wasn’t there anymore. So I got up, looked through the window and saw a body lying on the ground far below.”
Rodrigues said he tried his best to stop Timol from jumping but he wasn’t fast enough.
Timol, who was an underground South African Communist Party member and freedom fighter was involved in the distribution of pamphlets and anti-apartheid material upon his return to South Africa from London in 1971.
Timol was arrested at a roadblock with medical student Saleem Essop. Both were held at John Vorster Square for questioning.
Essop underwent treacherous torture, which resulted in him being admitted into hospital for his injuries. Timol, it is alleged, jumped to his death after four days of being detained.
Timol’s family have always suspected that he had been pushed to his death.
They fought to have the inquest into his death reopened when it was ruled by Magistrate JL de Villiers at the time that Timol had committed suicide and that no foul play was involved.
Rodrigues’s comments about Timol appearing to have had no injuries contradicts that of the two forensic pathologists who were called to testify last week.
Dr Shakeera Holland and Professor Steve Naidoo both testified to Timol having had injuries to his left jaw and face prior to him falling.
Their findings were based on the analysis of the original post-mortem report that was conducted on Timol.
Rodrigues maintained that he had no physical contact with Timol, and that he was there merely to perform the administrative duty of handing out salary cheques to the two officers who were in charge of Timol.
Rodrigues was not based at John Vorster Square, and it was his first visit to the building that day.
82-year-old Neville Els was an officer on duty in the building the day that Timol had died. He told the court this morning that he “might have been in the building on that date”.
Els served as a state security officer at John Vorster Square at the height of apartheid, when detainees were brought in for prolonged periods of interrogation.
Throughout this morning’s cross-examination session, Els told the court that he “cannot recall” most of the events surrounding the detention and death of Timol.
Els joined the security branch of the South African police force in 1966, where he was trained in the identification and destruction of explosives.
He was stationed on the ninth floor of the building where he had an office.
When Timol was arrested along with Essop at a road block, many of the documents that were found in the vehicle in which they were travelling were of an anti-apartheid nature and Els was called in to analyse these.
Court proceedings resume tomorrow morning at 10am.
