Haffajee family wants justice for activist’s murder
The Apartheid-era Victims’ Family Group has welcomed a court ruling that a young Durban political activist's death was in fact a murder.
Twenty-six-year-old dentist Hoosen Haffajee died in police custody at Brighton Beach Police Station in 1977.
He was found dead in his cell with his trousers twisted around his neck.
Police claimed he had taken his own life.
Decades later, the NPA re-opened the inquest into Haffajee's death following the proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
READ: Death of political activist Hoosen Haffejee to be reopened
The Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday handed down judgement, ruling that those who were responsible for his death must be held accountable.
The victims' family group's Imtiaz Cajee, the nephew of Ahmed Timol who also died in police custody, says the ruling brings hope to not just Haffajee's family but others in the same situation.
"In a democratic South Africa, almost 20 years after the final TRC [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] reports were handed over, a judgment like this is absolutely massive.
"It’s the beginning of a new struggle because the family would now like to see those responsible and implicated the loved one's death to be charged and prosecuted by the National Prosecuting Authority."
