NPA reopens Rick Turner murder probe

Forty-five years after the murder of anti-apartheid activist Rick Turner, fresh evidence has given his family new hope that the truth about who shot him dead in January 1978 will finally be uncovered – along with who gave the order, reports the Mail & Guardian. New evidence by a former Security Branch operative during the re-opened inquest into the death of anti-apartheid activist Hoosen Haffejee in detention the previous August has sparked a fresh investigation by the NPA. Turner’s youngest daughter Kim, who was nine years old when he was shot dead in front of her and her sister Jann, said that testimony at the Haffejee inquest confirmed that Security Branch surveillance on the family home had been lifted to facilitate the murder of her father. Mohun Gopal, then a junior Security Branch constable with two years experience, told the ’Haffejee' inquest in 2021 that he had been ordered by a Major Benjamin to 'keep observation’ on Turner’s home in Bellair, a month before the murder.

Two weeks later he had submitted reports to Colonel Jimmy Taylor, but was pulled off surveillance by Benjamin on Taylor’s orders the day before Turner was shot dead. Gopal’s evidence and pressure from the Turner family and lobby group Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) led to the NPA unit which is investigating outstanding Truth and Reconciliation Commission) cases, opening a new inquiry into his murder. Lawyer Kiren Rutsch, who acts for the Turner family, said they were working with the NPA team and the FHR to ensure that the case was investigated thoroughly and brought back to court. He was unable to say when the matter would get to court, reports the M&G. During TRC hearings, the murder and robbery unit head who had investigated the killing, Captain Chris Earle, gave evidence that his investigation was shut down by the police top brass despite possible involvement of Bureau of State Security operative Martin Dollincheck in the murder. Last year NPA head Shamila Batohi told Parliament that their TRC team was investigating 97 apartheid era matters, including 38 deaths in detention.