MR H TIMOL
Thank you very much Commissioners.  I am actually very pleased that you have asked this question.
JOHANNESBURG HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
9 M TIMOL
Living now in a democratic South Africa it affords us an opportunity to actually relate contributions of individuals, one is able to relate the contributions of individuals to bring about a democratic dispensation in South Africa.
 To start off I would like to say that Ahmed grew up in a very religious orthodox family of the Islamic faith.  He grew up at a time when there was intense oppression in South Africa, and as a young Indian Moslem he too became affected by what was happening in this country, the injustices committed against the vast majority of the people of South Africa, those who were not White.
 In his early years he became influenced by the political situation and he became a young activist of the Indian Congress.  He completed his schooling and went for training to become a schoolteacher.  ...(tape ends)  South Africa on exit permit to live in exile.  It seemed that this really affected him tremendously.
 In 1966 at the young age of 24 he left South Africa and went to Mecca to perform Hadj which is compulsory for every adult Moslem.  After completing his Hadj he thereafter went to England and he lived with his very close friends Essop Pahad and Aziz Pahad.  Aziz Pahad is presently the deputy foreign minister of this country.  And Essop Pahad is a member of Parliament.  
 The three years that he spent in England he taught as a schoolteacher in London and through his contact of meeting other people in London I think he finally reached a decision that he had to return to South Africa to participate in the underground struggle.
 It was during this period he also came into contact with a prominent South African Indian by the name of Dr 
JOHANNESBURG HEARING TRC/GAUTENG
10 M TIMOL
Yusuf Dadoo, I am sure all of us do know him or have heard of him.  I think it was Ahmed's commitment to bring about a just society that he felt that he had to return to South Africa during a very dark period when the security police and the securocrenjoying is as a result of Bubla Salojee, Ahmed Timol, Hector Petersen and many, many countless and thousands of other young and old, men and women, who have made it possible for us to sit here today and listen to testimonies of mothers and relatives who have lost their loved ones in the cause of the struggle in this country.
 Thank you.