South African Communist Party
27 October 2018
SACP commemorates 47th anniversary of the murder of Comrade Ahmed Timol
Today, 27 October 2018, marks the 47th year since the brutal murder of Comrade Ahmed Timol by apartheid state security forces at the John Vorster Square Police Station, a week before his 30th birthday.
The lies that had been spread over the decades by former apartheid operatives that he committed suicide by jumping off the 10th floor window of John Vorster Square Police Station were exposed last year during the High Court inquest on Comrade Timol’s death. The truth was finally laid bare that Comrade Timol was brutally tortured by the police and then thrown out through the 10th floor window.
Also of significance is that the inquest judge declared illegal and set aside the racial profiling that had been placed on Comrade Timol and, instead of “Indian male”, substituted it with “South African”. The intention of such racial profiling by the apartheid regime was to view White people as real South Africans and other races as non-South Africans.
The SACP in its 14th National Congress in 2017 conferred, posthumously, the Special Recognition Award on Comrade Ahmed Timol. This was for his contribution to the struggle against apartheid, for the social emancipation of all humanity, and for socialism. In 2009, Comrade Ahmed Timol was conferred with the National Order of Luthuli by the South African government. His was a just cause, one which should be recognised by the entire working class.
Comrade Ahmed Timol was not merely an anti-apartheid revolutionary. He was also a communist, fighting for the end of the exploitation of one person by another, one group by another and one nation by another. He fought against capitalism, the source of apartheid in South Africa. He also fought against imperialism, the driver and sustainer of apartheid.
He underwent political and ideological training in the Lenin School in Moscow in 1969. Having experienced first-hand the injustices of apartheid, he took it upon himself not to be a passive observer of the system, but actively contributed, together with many others, to the fall of apartheid and the liberation of all humankind.
The cause which Comrade Timol fought and died for has not yet been reached, despite gains made since the 1994 democratic breakthrough. The second more radical phase of the national democratic revolution needs everyone to follow the selfless example of Comrade Timol and be active participants in driving the revolution.
The people of South Africa fought not just for the right for all South Africans to vote in a secret ballot, but for the improvement of their material lives. They fought for the fulfilment of the fundamental human rights to eat, drink, and have shelter and clothing [before participating in a secret vote for leaders]. All social needs therefore must be taken care of, not just for the elites, but on an egalitarian basis.
The SACP continues to stand with the Timol family in the prosecution of the murderers of their son. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission could not expose the whole truth on the circumstances leading to his death. The prosecution is therefore most welcomed, and the Party will continue to actively contribute in ensuring that the prosecution proceeds and is successful. The SACP will be filing papers opposing the motion by one of the apartheid police officers, Joao Rodrigues, for a permanent stay of the murder prosecution for his involvement in the death of Comrade Timol.
47 years on we have not forgotten! Until the whole truth comes out on the murder of all apartheid victims, only then can true healing begin!
Statement issued by the SACP, 27 October 2018
