NPA will not prosecute Els and Sons – Imtiaz Cajee issues a statement and NPA responds
Imtiaz Cajee, a nephew of murdered anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol is questioning the decision by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) not to prosecute Neville Els and Seth Sons, two former security branch policemen for misleading the court during the reopened Timol inquest in 2017. On June 3, 2020 Imtiaz Cajee issued a statement in which he has emphasised that “families of victims will not rest until such time as we see the NPA and the South African state live up to its international and domestic obligations. Many other families believe that the NPA lacks political will to pursue these cases and would rather delay making decisions in the apartheid cases allowing many of the perpetrators to get away with it. Cajee notes with anger his frustration that once again the NPA has failed to take action at a time when Sons and Els are still alive, but unwilling to disclose the truth about their complicity in torture deepening the impunity for apartheid crimes. “Inevitably, the families of victims are in a race against time as family members age and pass on without learning the truth about the death of loved ones. This is a betrayal of those who gave us their lives for freedom.”
The NPA publicly responded to Cajee’s statement on June 5, 2020. According to News24, the NPA spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said that the NPA “had decided not to prosecute as the State must prove the evidence they gave was intentionally false”, and that “Both Mr Els and Mr Sons gave three standard answers regarding their knowledge of the assault of detainees – that they were not aware of the assaults on detainees, that they can’t remember or that they read about them in newspapers.” Mjonondwane also added:
“Factors such as the passage of time – 46 years at the time of their evidence – [and] their advanced ages – 80 and 82 years – places the State in a difficult position to prove that they are deliberately lying. Both Messrs Els and Sons did not testify in the original inquest proceedings in June 1972 or made statements then, and thus had to rely on their memories.”
For more information in relation to the Ahmed Timol case check https://www.ahmedtimol.co.za and Timol’s profile on our website.
