On 1 February at 19H30 SABC 3 airs Indians Can¹t Fly, a 48-minute
television documentary which tells the story of anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol.
The documentary is narrated by Timol’s nephew Imtiaz Ahmed Cajee, author of,
Timol: Quest for Justice, and is directed by Enver Samuel.
Timol, a 29-year-old Roodepoort teacher, fell from the 10th Floor of the security
police building in Johannesburg in 1971 and a police inquest concluded that he
committed suicide while under interrogation. But questions remain as to whether he may
have been pushed, or tortured to death and thrown from the window. It has been
suggested that the roadblock at which Timol was captured was set up specifically to
trap him – which could mean his murder was premeditated by police.
Samuel recalls listening to Timol’s mother’s testimony to the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission in 1996 and said, “I have since followed Timol-related
activities in the media, such as the naming of the Ahmed Timol Secondary School
by President Mandela; Imtiaz’s book launch and the posthumous award of the Order
of Luthuli in 2010. Finally, media coverage on the Secrecy Bill and access to Timol¹s
security records in November 2011 triggered me to make contact with Imtiaz. After
a number of years, we have produced a documentary on one of the unsung heroes
of our struggle.’
The film traces Timol’s upbringing in Breyten, Mpumalanga, and then Roodepoort.
Interviews are conducted with his friends, former teachers and students as well as
Security Branch policemen and Advocate George Bizos, who represented the Timol
family at the inquest in 1972.
