Johannesburg Central Police Station

Description

The Johannesburg Central Police Station is a South African Police Service police station based in Johannesburg, South African. Until 1997, it was called John Vorster Square.HistoryJohn Vorster Square was officially opened on the 23 August 1968 by John Vorster the then current prime minister of the Republic of South Africa. It was a 10 storey, blue coloured cement building. Floors nine and ten were occupied by the police Security Branch while the detainees cells were on the lower floors of the building. During the apartheid era, the police station in downtown Johannesburg was a notorious site of interrogation, torture and abuse by the South African Security Police of apartheid resistance fighters. During September 1997, John Vorster Square was renamed Johannesburg Central Police Station and with that the removal of the bust of John Vorster.Under apartheidJohn Vorster Square was also used as a detention centre mostly for political activists; those sent into "detention" were not allowed to have any contact with family members, lawyers or any outside help; they were cut off from the world. Detention could last for a few hours to a few months, depending on the police.Between 1963 and 1990 at least 73 political activists are known to have died in detention in apartheid South Africa. And between 1970 and 1990, eight political activists are known to have died during or as a result of their detention in John Vorster Square.The first detainee to die in John Vorster Square was Ahmed Timol, a 30 year old teacher and political activist and an underground member of the South African Communist Party and Umkhonto we Sizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress. On 27 October 1971, Ahmed Timol plunged to his death from the 10th floor five days after his arrest. The police claimed that he had committed suicide and an official inquest into his death in 1972 backed up this claim, despite evidence that he had been subjected to severe torture before his death.