Dr Yusuf Dadoo

Title: Dr.

Names: Dadoo, Yusuf Mohamed

Born: 5 September 1909, Krugersdorp, West Rand, South Africa

Passed Away: 19 September 1983, England

In summary: Medical doctor, political activist and Chairman of the SACP

 2009 marked 100 years since Yusuf Dadoo was born in Krugersdorp, West Rand on 5 September. Today, he like many activists of the South African socialist movement and other stalwarts of the liberation struggle, such as Bunting, Kotane and Roux, have fast been forgotten or their roles overlooked. Yusuf Dadoo left a formidable political legacy, covering a number of fields spanning the relationship between transnational identity, racial identity, national liberation, socialism, non-racialism and internationalism. In celebration of 100th anniversary of the birth of Yusuf Dadoo in 2009, SAHO is, as part of its rewriting of the history of the liberation movement, updating its material on Yusuf Dadoo. SAHO is committed to critically engaging with Dadoo and his contemporaries’ legacy, by interrogating impulses of the time that might have been written out of history. We are analyzing the solutions that Dadoo and his generation sought in building non racialism and socialism to critically engage with these issues and find new solutions that meet the needs of the 21st century. Today we are challenged by the imperatives of globalization and the power of the nation-state, by neo-liberalism and the struggle for socialism, non-racialism and xenophobia. The labels might be different and the political conjuncture significantly changed but the challenges that animated Dadoo and his generation are similar. Dadoo and the liberation movements were concerned with the creation of a progressive global movement that would advance the interests of the oppressed and marginalized in the era of globalization. It is especially opportune then on this the 100th anniversary of Dadoo’s birth to critically engage with the issues of this liberation struggle legacy. SAHO hopes that this conference, lecture and archive will in turn inspire new research and interpretations of the liberation struggle.

(source: South African History Online)

Born: 3 November 1941 , Breyton, Transvaal

Passed Away: 27 October 1971, John Vorster Square Police Station, Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng)

In summary: Teacher, member of the South African Communist Party, first political detainee to die at the hands of the Security Police at the notorious John Vorster Police Station, Johannesburg

Ahmed Timol was born in Breyton, Transvaal on 3 November 1941 to Haji Yusuf Ahmed Timol and Hawa Ismail Dindar. His father came to South Africa in 1918, at the age of 12, from India. He was one of six children, with two sisters, Zubeida and Aysha and three brothers, Ismail, Mohammed and Haroon. As there were no primary schools in the area, the young Timol was schooled at home.

In 1949, the family moved to Roodepoort in the Western Transvaal. In 1955, the family moved to Balfour in the southeast of Transvaal where his father opened a shop. Timol was forced to go to school in Standerton, as there was no school in Balfour. He completed his high school education at the Johannesburg Indian High School (JIHS). Once more, the Timol family back to Roodepoort in 1956 where his father opened a fish and chips shop.

At a young age, Timol had his first brush with the law. He and his friend Yusuf JoJo Saloojee were travelling by train from Roodepoort to Johannesburg, when a student claimed that he had a leaked an exam paper. Timol and Saloojee asked for the paper to be burnt as it would lead to them being in trouble if they were caught with it. The boys burnt the paper and while it was burning a White conductor entered the coach and upon seeing the burning paper, locked the coach. At the next station the train was met by a group of police, the Security Branch included. The pair managed to escape but other boys gave their names to the police. Later, the police visited the boys’ homes. His mother urged her son to provide the names of the boys who were really the owners of the leaked exam paper, but Timol refused to cooperate with the police.

Eventually, Timol received a scholarship from the Kholwad Madressa to pursue a teaching course at the Johannesburg Training Institute for Indian Teachers (JTIIT), at the time the only institution of higher education for Indians in the Transvaal.  For the period 1962 to 1963, he was elected Vice Chairman of the Students Representative Council (SRC). In the same year, the SRC managed to affiliate to the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS).

Timol completed his teacher’s diploma in 1963 and was posted to Roodepoort Indian School. As a teacher, he was well loved and respected by colleagues and students. Considered a gifted teacher, he would inspire and motivate his students and was one of the most popular teachers at the school. Even when he was abroad, Timol shared his meagre salary with his family as he sent money home to assist.

In October 1971, Timol and Salim Essop were arrested at a roadblock in Coronationville, handcuffed and taken to the Newlands Police Station. The police discovered pamphlets in the boot of the car that they were travelling in. According to the police, banned ANC literature, copies of secret communication correspondence, instructions from the SACP, material related to the 50th anniversary of the SACP were found in the car.

Essop was taken to a separate office where he was severely assaulted. The police demanded to know whom they were going to make contact. In reality after a few social visits, the pair was on their way to Mayfair to get a snack. The brutal assault continued. Essop was handcuffed and taken to the notorious John Vorster Square in Johannesburg. His torture had not begun in earnest at the hands of the police.

The police visited the Timol home and detained his father and brother, Haroon. A very large number of people were detained in the wake of Timol’s arrest. Among the arrested was Indres Moodley, with whom Timol had worked closely and who was going to establish an underground cell in Durban. Altogether, the police raided 115 people’s homes. Among those arrested were bishops, priests, lecturers, journalists, students and all members of the executive committee of NUSAS. The Security Police claimed that this was a result of leaflets found in Timol and Essop’s car.

Salim Essop was tortured continuously for four days. He had to endure severe assaults. During the course of his torture, he managed to catch a glimpse of Timol through the door of his interrogation room that was ajar.  Timol was not walking normally, had a black hood over his head and appeared to be in severe pain. Essop and some of the other detainees were subject to electric shock. He collapsed on a number of occasions and his interrogators would throw water onto his face. They even urinated on him, laughing as they did. They held him by the ankles and threatened to throw him down a stairwell from the 10th floor of the building. Eventually, Essop was placed on a stretcher and taken to Johannesburg General Hospital. According to the medical staff he was severely assaulted.

In the police version of Timol’s detention, they claimed that he admitted having contact with the SACP in London. The police further claimed that on 27 October 1971, while Timol was alone with a policeman, Sergeant J Rodrigues at John Vorster Square, he rushed to a window, opened it and dived out, landing on Commissioner Street. There was no mention at all of assault or torture meted out on Timol.

Timol’s brother, Mohammed, was not allowed out of detention to attend his brother’s funeral. On 29 October, Timol’s family was given his body for burial. During the washing of the body for burial according to Muslim rites, it was observed that his neck was broken and that his fingernails were taken out and that his elbow was burnt. An undertaker, Mohammed Khan, who saw Timol’s body in the mortuary, observed that his eye was out of its socket, his body was covered in blue marks and that he had burn marks all over his body.

Several thousand people attended his funeral in Roodepoort. Roodepoort came to a standstill. All Indian businesses closed as a mark of respect. There was a heavy police presence at the funeral. They even took photographs as Timol’s body was lowered into the grave.

Even after Timol’s funeral, the security police harassment did not stop. Timol’s sister, Aysha, would be followed by the Security Police as she walked from home to the mosque. After the funeral, the police questioned everyone who was associated with him, further traumatising the community. They would visit the Timol family flat and even search through the dustbins.

On 22 June 1972, the inquest magistrate found that no one was to blame for Ahmed Timol’s death. Effectively, the magistrate ruled that Timol had committed suicide and details of his brutal torture were excluded. Thus the Apartheid state was absolved of all responsibility for Timol’s death in detention.

At a function, Former President Nelson Mandela renamed the Azaadville Secondary School, in Krugersdorp, the Ahmed Timol Secondary School on 29 March 1999.

(source: South African History Online)

 

 Names: Saloojee, Suliman “Babla”

Born: 5 February 1931, Belfast, Eastern Transvaal

Passed Away: 9 September 1964

In summary: Legal clerk, political activist, Transvaal Indian Congress member, fourth person to die in police custody for political actvity

 Suliman “Babla” Saloojee was born on 5 February 1931 in the small town of Belfast in the then eastern Transvaal, now Mpumalanga. Babla was compelled to leave home in order to gain a basic education. After completing his education he worked as worked as a legal clerk, but often presented himself as a qualified lawyer when his comrades were in trouble with the police. This enabled him to trace the whereabouts of detainees, obtain legal assistance and arrange for essential provisions to be delivered to them.

Babla joined the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC) and the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress (TIYC) and became  a well-known figure in its circles. During the 1950s, he was a member of the Picasso Club, along with Ahmed Kathrada, Mosie Moolla, Abdulhay Jassat and Farid Adam spending many nights painting political slogans and putting up posters. They named their group after Picasso, a famous European painter, as a ploy to come together to do political sloganeering work.

Babla also participated in the major anti apartheid campaigns such as the Defiance Campaign.  He also assisted in smuggling a number of political activists out of the country. For instance he assisted his close friends Abdulhay Jassat and Mosie Moolla in successfully leaving the country after they escaped from detention despite a massive manhunt launched by the security police. Babla was detained on the night of his engagement to Rookie Adam in 1961. In February 1964 he was served with a banning order.

On 6 July 1964 Babla, along with Ahmed Essop “Quarter” Khota, was arrested and taken to Marshall Square.

His wife, Rookie who he married on 1 July 1962, recalls that the last time she saw him he had a bandage on his head. When she tried to inquire as to what happened the visit was cut short. It is widely believed that on 9 September 1964 he was severely tortured, killed and thrown out of the seventh floor window (a height of 20m) from Gray’s Building, the Special Branch headquarters in Johannesburg. Babla was the fourth person to die in police custody.

The inquest found that the cause of death was unknown, but to this day the suspicion lingers that he was murdered.

(source: South African History Online)