Timol would never have committed suicide, Pahad tells inquest
25 July 2017
Johannesburg – Anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol would never have committed suicide, former minister in the presidency Essop Pahad told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday.
Pahad was testifying at the second sitting of the Ahmed Timol inquest, before Judge Billy Mothle.
"Committing suicide was not, and has never been, the policy of the SACP [South African Communist Party] or the ANC. In our last discussion, we agreed that Ahmed should not commit suicide," Pahad told the inquest.
Timol's death, on October 27, 1971, was ruled a suicide in 1972.