Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Tymon Smith

Creator

Tymon Smith

HOOSEN HAFFEJEE

At last, light on what happened to Hoosen Haffejee

The reopened inquest into the apartheid activist’s death in 1977 suggests Security Branch officers tortured him, with a then junior officer giving the clearest picture yet of…

  • Tymon Smith
11 min read
Justice delayed: A poster outside the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg calls on people to share their stories at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. (Photograph by Gallo Images/ Rodger Bosch)
AHMED TIMOL

A renewed commitment to TRC cases

The NPA and the Hawks are allocating people and resources to investigate apartheid-era crimes that have gone unpunished, but not everyone is altogether happy about it.

  • Tymon Smith
9 min read
Former Security Branch police officer Joao Rodrigues during his first appearance in court over the murder of activist Ahmed Timol. (Photograph by Gallo Images/ Sowetan/ Alon Skuy)
AHMED TIMOL

João Rodrigues is running out of road to appeal

The former apartheid security police officer’s attempt to use political interference as a reason not to stand trial for murder has failed

  • Tymon Smith
7 min read
Freedom fighter Denis Goldberg talks to the media at Liliesleaf Farm, the apartheid-era hideout for Nelson Mandela and freedom fighters in Johannesburg, on July 11, 2013 in Rivonia, South Africa. It is 50 years since the hideout was raided by police on July 11, 1963. The farm was the secret nerve centre for the Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the ANC and the Congress Alliance. Police interrupted a meeting of Operation Mayibuye, a plan to overthrow the Apartheid government. The raid by police led to the arrest of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Govan Mbeki and Denis Goldberg, who were convicted through the infamous Rivonia Trial and most were sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
APARTHEID

A full life, well lived

Denis Goldberg was a forthcoming, funny, angry, brutally honest and impressive man who never stopped fighting for what he believed in

  • Tymon Smith
8 min read
Former arms deal critics Hennie van Vuuren, Andrew Feinstein and Paul Holden, in Pretoria. (Photograph by Gallo Images/Foto24/Craig Niewenhuizen)
ARMS DEAL

South African arms deal not over yet

A three-year challenge has reversed the findings of the Seriti commission

  • Tymon Smith
9 min read
The two main interrogators in the Ahmed Timol case were both alive for many years and the family knew their whereabouts, but both died before that inquest was reopened. (Image via www.ahmedtimol.co.za)
AHMED TIMOL

Can the NPA save face on unresolved apartheid deaths?

Doors have opened for the Timol, Simelane and Aggett families but doubts still linger about the NPA’s behaviour and culpability

  • Tymon Smith
9 min read
Neil Aggett died in police custody in 1982. (Gallo)
AHMED TIMOL

NPA to re-examine Neil Aggett’s death

The Minister of Justice announced that an investigation will reopen over the death of Aggett’s death

  • Tymon Smith
10 min read
Leader: Hermann Overbeek has been at Nooitgedacht 88 primary school for 35 years and has seen the school through a number of changes, always in the presence of that bastion of conservatism. (Paul Botes/M&G)
AFRIKANER CONSERVATIVES

Belief can move mountains – and transform schools

It only takes a good human being, who treats everyone with respect, to cast doubt on one’s ability to kill off God

  • Tymon Smith
12 min read