This week marked the 47th anniversary of the death of struggle stalwart and political activist Dr Hoosen Haffejee.

This year also marks the first anniversary since his death was ruled a murder following the second inquest into his death.

The Pietermaritzburg High Court in September 2023 ruled that Haffejee did not die by suicide, but was murdered, and the apartheid police special branch covered this up.

Haffejee died on August 3, 1977, after he was tortured by police in Brighton Beach, Durban.

Haffejee’s sister, Sarah, said she remembers entering the Pietermaritzburg High Court on September 13, 2023 and being overwhelmed by all the evidence presented in the re-opened inquest into her brother’s death.

“I was flanked by my attorney Anwar Jessop, who had, from the outset, always supported our family’s efforts to pursue justice for Hoosen.

“Many family members and friends who had comforted us throughout the decades attended the hearings, which ran over a few weeks.

“I was reminded of the day my mother bid farewell to my handsome and loving brother as he left Pietermaritzburg to travel to Durban, where he had been employed as a dentist at King George V Hospital in Overport.

“As she waved goodbye, she had no way of knowing that it would be the last time she saw her beloved son alive,” said Sarah.

“Two days later, he was dead.

“Within 20 hours of his arrest by members of the security branch on August 2, 1977, he was found hanging from the lower grille bars at the detention cell at Brighton Beach in Durban. A few days later, another detainee, Bayempin Msizi, met a similar fate.”

According to Sarah, the original inquest into his death was a sham. It found that Hoosen’s death was caused by dying by suicide.

“My mother, Fatima, was quoted in the Natal Witness dated July 17,  1978, as saying: ‘I would never believe my son took his own life.

“Although a magistrate’s findings are based on the evidence put before him, isn’t it strange to find a recurring similarity in the injuries and bruises found on the bodies of the dead detainees and no evidence led about the obvious injuries? Are we doing enough to see justice being done?

“I think the time is right for us to pray that God will open a door to protect our destiny from the cruel injustice of the South African ‘security police’. I hope our prayers are answered before it is too late for us all. As a grieving mother, I cannot forget this terrible ordeal. My heart will always cry for my son.”

Sarah and her brother Ismail told The Witness this week that now their brother’s death has been rightfully ruled as a murder, they are relieved and hope that everyone involved in his murder will be brought to book.