Square John Vorster in Johannesburg was the seat of the south african police and of the so-called “Security Quay.”, a structure dedicated to the security of the State. In the city, the blue profile of the building was a synonym of fear. Many of those who have fought apartheid are passed in handcuffs from there. On the tenth floor were the cells and the interrogation rooms. Neil Aggett, 28 years old, white, trade unionist and medical doctor, died there in a cell, with a rope on the neck. Suicide, they said, but thanks to the stubbornness of his parents, his file was reopened and it started a process.
on The 27th of November 1981, Aggett is taken away by the police. His people are worried. A month later, on the 31st of December, the police warn that soon will be released. The night between the 4th and the 5th of February of 1982, he was found hanging with a “kikoi”, a colorful scarf common in Africa after 70 days of detention.
“A mass in the scene because it seemed to be suicide. Instead it is murder,” says the sister of Aggett. Arthur Cronwright, the greater of the Security Branch, he had found a letter to “comrades”, written by Barbara Hogan, held on the tenth floor. “Hitler, as he was nicknamed by all Cronwright, had tortured also Aggett to that end. I had tried to take away my life, for the torture suffered. Back in those days, observed in court, Hogan, ten years of prison behind it – for me, it was a torture, but now is the time to do it.”
Cronwright, who died in 2012, and life had never apologized for his crimes in front of the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation. The tour should get a another member of the Security Branch, Nicolaas Johannes Deetlefs, who questioned Hogan and Aggett. Through its lawyers, however, has already denied any responsibility.
on The tenth floor on October 27, 1971 also died, Ahmed Timol, an indian, three decades, a member in exile of the communist Party. On the tenth floor on February 16, 1977 he died of Matthews Mabelane, black, 23-year-old student. From 1960 to 1990 were killed in the prison of the 73 prisoners, and so many blacks do not know where is buried the corpse. It never happened, for example, the body of Nokuhula Simelane, 23, arrested on September 23, 1983, was tortured for two years and then killed.
Now, with the trial for the death of Timol, the first to be filed against the power of racist, and then Aggett, the jar of snakes is revealed. No one was going to open those pages, even knowing that the dead weigh heavily on the conscience of the Country. At the age of 49 by the killing of Timol and 38 from that of Aggett perhaps the time has come to do a little’ accounts with the apartheid. “The family have waited own to know the truth,” says archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace prize.
Now the palace in the Square, John Vorster called the Police station and tries to shake off those times.
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