Ahmed Timol did not fall to his death when police say he did, eyewitness testifies
An eyewitness has disputed the recorded time of activist Ahmed Timol’s fall from the notorious 10th floor of John Vorster Square. On Thursday, Mohammad Ali Thokan told the Pretoria High Court’s inquest into Timol’s death that on the morning of October 27 1971, he had stopped at the then Dollars Petrol Station across the road from John Vorster Square to fill up his car. "When I was at the petrol station I heard a loud thud. I looked around to see what had caused the noise but its exact location was not clear. A few seconds later I heard a pedestrian‚ who was walking down Commissioner Street‚ exclaim that a person had fallen from John Vorster Square‚" he said. Thokan said he walked towards the building to gain a closer view but shortly after, police came out of the building and cordoned off the area. He told the inquest that he was stopped halfway across the road by extremely aggressive plain-clothed white police officers who told him to "f**k off". "I assumed they were policemen by t...
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