Ahmed Timol
| Ahmed Timol | |
|---|---|
| Born | 3 November 1941 Breyten, Transvaal, South Africa |
| Died | 27 October 1971 John Vorster Square Police Station, Johannesburg, Transvaal (now Gauteng) |
| Nationality | South African |
| Occupation | Teacher, member of the South African Communist Party and MK, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) |
| Known for | anti-apartheid activism |
Ahmed Timol (3 November 1941 – 27 October 1971) was a noted anti-Apartheid activist and political leader of South Africa.
He was born in Breyten, Transvaal (now Gauteng) to Haji Yusuf Ahmed Timol and Hawa Ismail Dindar. His father came to South Africa in 1918, at the age of 12, from Kholvad in Surat province of Gujarat, in western India. He was one of six children, with two sisters, Zubeida and Aysha and three brothers, Ismail, Mohammed and Haroon.
Ahmed Timol had shown interest in politics from a young age. His father, Haji Timol, was a close colleague of Yusuf Dadoo, who was leader of the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC) and later Chairman of the South African Communist Party (SACP), and some of the other Indian leaders who succeeded in transforming the Indian Congresses into powerful, progressive, militant national liberation movements.
Timol received a scholarship from the Kholvad Madressa in Surat, to pursue a teaching course at the Johannesburg Training Institute for Indian Teachers (JTIIT), at the time the only institution of higher education for Indians in the Transvaal. For the period 1962 to 1963, he was elected Vice-Chairman of the Students Representative Council (SRC). In the same year, the SRC managed to affiliate to the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS).
During the December 1966, Ahmed resigned as a young schoolteacher from Roodepoort, and left South Africa on the pretext of going on religious pilgrimage to Mecca for the Hajj, with the secret intention to live in London for the next three years. It was in Saudi Arabia that he met Dr. Yusuf Dadoo and also Maulvi Cachalia, a stalwart of the liberation struggle who was in exile in India, both of who inspired the young man to champion his nation's struggle.
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