Timol died in custody in 1971. Apartheid-era security police claimed he committed suicide by jumping out of a window from the 10th floor of John Vorster Square in Johannesburg. Steve Biko died after being tortured and interrogated by security police for 22 hours in 1977.
Copies of autopsy reports for Biko and Timol were to have been sold
to the highest bidder by Westgate Walding Auctioneers on Wednesday.
The auction of the reports was cancelled after an urgent interdict was filed in the High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday by Biko's son Nkosinathi on behalf of the Biko family.
The auctioneers had received the documents from Clive and Susan Steele, the children of Maureen Steele, who was the personal secretary of the pathologist appointed by the Biko family, Dr Jonathan Gluckman.
Maureen had been given the documents for safekeeping. She died in 2011 and the documents passed to her children. Now the Biko and Timol families want the documents returned.
Timol's nephew, Imtiaz Ahmed Cajee, said: "The documentation will form part of the Timol Repository at ahmedtimol.co.za, and will assist in exposing the inquest that found that nobody was responsible for my uncle's death, and that he had committed suicide."
Concluding the inquest, magistrate JJL de Villiers stated at the time that Timol had "self-inflicted wounds" on his body, and that communists "were trained not to betray their comrades but commit suicide".
Cajee declined to comment on the legal action against the Steeles and the return of the documents.
Bidding was to have begun at R70000 for the Biko document and R20000 for the Timol report.
Westgate Walding auctioneer Brett Martin said the documents had been consigned to his company by the Steeles. "I was convinced that the Steeles had a right to possess or own the items. That, however, is for the courts to decide. We certainly are required to establish ownership and the fact that we offered them for sale implies that we were comfortable about that fact," said Martin.
"If the court decides that the Biko or Timol families are entitled to the documents, then so be it. The moment the challenge was mentioned to us, we withdrew these documents."
"Why the High Court action took place is a mystery to me.
"We regret any hurt or harm that we have caused the Biko and Timol families through the offering of these documents for sale."
The Steele family lawyer, Jeremy Clark, argued in a press statement that the documents were file copies of the original autopsy reports.
"Ownership vests with my clients. It's my clients' copy of a public state document that they have owned for 37 years. It is not a private Biko or Timol family document," he said.
"The Bikos have mistaken this document with another private autopsy report that Dr Gluckman apparently did for them and that our clients have never even seen. We don't know the whereabouts of that private autopsy report."
The court ordered that the documents remain with the auctioneers. The activists' families have until the end of next month to challenge the ruling.
On Thursday, the Steeles demanded an apology from the Bikos, saying they had been defamed by Nkosinathi Biko's public statements regarding ownership of the reports.
A change.org petition titled "Return Steve Biko and Ahmed Timol's Autopsy Reports to their Families" has been launched by musician sisters Nomsa, Ntsiki and Thandiswa Mazwai.
Source- Sunday Times
The auction of the reports was cancelled after an urgent interdict was filed in the High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday by Biko's son Nkosinathi on behalf of the Biko family.
The auctioneers had received the documents from Clive and Susan Steele, the children of Maureen Steele, who was the personal secretary of the pathologist appointed by the Biko family, Dr Jonathan Gluckman.
Maureen had been given the documents for safekeeping. She died in 2011 and the documents passed to her children. Now the Biko and Timol families want the documents returned.
Timol's nephew, Imtiaz Ahmed Cajee, said: "The documentation will form part of the Timol Repository at ahmedtimol.co.za, and will assist in exposing the inquest that found that nobody was responsible for my uncle's death, and that he had committed suicide."
Concluding the inquest, magistrate JJL de Villiers stated at the time that Timol had "self-inflicted wounds" on his body, and that communists "were trained not to betray their comrades but commit suicide".
Cajee declined to comment on the legal action against the Steeles and the return of the documents.
Bidding was to have begun at R70000 for the Biko document and R20000 for the Timol report.
Westgate Walding auctioneer Brett Martin said the documents had been consigned to his company by the Steeles. "I was convinced that the Steeles had a right to possess or own the items. That, however, is for the courts to decide. We certainly are required to establish ownership and the fact that we offered them for sale implies that we were comfortable about that fact," said Martin.
"If the court decides that the Biko or Timol families are entitled to the documents, then so be it. The moment the challenge was mentioned to us, we withdrew these documents."
"Why the High Court action took place is a mystery to me.
"We regret any hurt or harm that we have caused the Biko and Timol families through the offering of these documents for sale."
The Steele family lawyer, Jeremy Clark, argued in a press statement that the documents were file copies of the original autopsy reports.
"Ownership vests with my clients. It's my clients' copy of a public state document that they have owned for 37 years. It is not a private Biko or Timol family document," he said.
"The Bikos have mistaken this document with another private autopsy report that Dr Gluckman apparently did for them and that our clients have never even seen. We don't know the whereabouts of that private autopsy report."
The court ordered that the documents remain with the auctioneers. The activists' families have until the end of next month to challenge the ruling.
On Thursday, the Steeles demanded an apology from the Bikos, saying they had been defamed by Nkosinathi Biko's public statements regarding ownership of the reports.
A change.org petition titled "Return Steve Biko and Ahmed Timol's Autopsy Reports to their Families" has been launched by musician sisters Nomsa, Ntsiki and Thandiswa Mazwai.
Source- Sunday Times
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