Reopened Inquest Hears Testimony on 1977 Death of Activist Matthews Mabelane but Issues No Ruling Yet
A South African court is re-examining the death of student activist Matthews Mabelane, who died in police custody in 1977. The reopened inquest is testing the original police account that he fell while trying to escape.
techcentral.co.zaA reopened inquest into the 1977 death of student activist Matthews "Mojo" Mabelane is examining whether the official police account holds up nearly five decades later. Mabelane, who was 22, died in police custody on 15 February 1977 after being detained without charge under the Terrorism Act.
The original inquest accepted the police version that he fell from a 10th-floor window at John Vorster Square police headquarters in Johannesburg while trying to escape.
His family was barred from asking questions or presenting independent evidence at that proceeding. Judge Sandiswa Mfenyana is presiding over the reopened inquest at the Gauteng Division of the High Court in Johannesburg. The hearing is placing Mabelane's death in the context of a broader pattern of indefinite detention, torture and killings of political activists by the apartheid-era Security Branch.
Warrant Officer Leana Viljoen, the sole surviving Security Branch officer involved in the case, testified that she was in Room 1008 when Mabelane allegedly stepped out of the window and walked along a narrow exterior ledge before falling. She said colleagues later told her he had fallen to his death.
AllAfrica reported that the reopened inquest has challenged the official apartheid-era account of his death.
