Dr Hoosen Mia Haffejee was a medical doctor who died in police custody on 3 August 1977, aged 26. The police alleged that he had hung himself with his trousers from a grille door at Durban’s Brighton Beach Police station. An inquest in 1978 found that Haffejee had indeed committed suicide. In January 2015, the Haffejee family made a joint representation with the families of other apartheid victims to the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) to have the inquests of their respective family members reopened. In August 2019, the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services formally requested the Judge President of the KwaZulu-Natal Division of the High Court to designate a judge to re-open Haffejee’s inquest. The inquest hearing is yet to be scheduled.
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TIMELINE
Timeline of events. Click the arrows to scroll.
1950
Haffejee is born
1966
Haffejee relocates to India
1976
Haffejee returns to SA
1977
Haffejee is arrested
1977
Haffejee dies after 24 hours in police custody
1978
Inquest finds cause of death to be suicide
1996
TRC hears case; no perpetrators apply for amnesty
2003
Priority Crimes Litigation Unit of NPA is created
2003
The TRC’s final report is released, stressing the need for a ‘bold prosecution policy’ in cases where amnesty has been refused
2003
The President of SA addresses Parliament on the need for criminal accountability in TRC cases
2005
NPA releases amendments to Prosecution Policy, effectively creating ‘backdoor amnesty’
2015
Haffejee family requests NPA to reopen inquest
2017
Preliminary investigations undertaken by NPA
2018
NPA closes investigation, before opening it again
2019
Process of reopening inquest begins
2019
Taylor, last person of material interest to case, dies
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