Date: 3 October, 1978

The deputy chief magistrate of Port Elizabeth, L.A. Coetzee, ruled at the end of a ten day inquest into the death of Lungile Tabalaza that no one was to blame for his death, though the government pathologist acknowledged that several bruises and lacerations could have happened before the fall. Tabalaza died at 15h00 on 10 July 1978 after allegedly jumping from a fifth floor window of the Port Elizabeth Security Police in Sanlam Building. A magistrate, Mr Lubbe, who saw Tabalaza less than an hour before his 'suicide', expressed regret for having failed to investigate his fears that he would be beaten if he did not make a statement when he was taken back to the Security Branch offices. Though Tabalaza was not a detainee under the Terrorism Act, a high-level police inquiry had been ordered into his death.

Further reading:

Deaths in Detention (list).

Reference:

1. 'The state inside South Africa between 1960 and 1990' from Stanford University's Online Classroom [online], available at: www.stanford.edu [accessed September 2009]
2. Kalley, J.A.; Schoeman, E. & Andor, L.E. (eds)(1999). Southern African Political History: a chronology of key political events from independence to mid-1997, Westport: Greenwood.