Neil Aggett’s close friend to continue testimony at inquest
Anti-apartheid activist, Gavin Anderson will on Friday continue to testify in the inquest into the death of his close friend and activist, Neil Aggett in the High Court in Johannesburg.
On Thursday, Anderson told the court that the death of Aggett caused him post-traumatic stress disorder. He said they were close friends who were like brothers.
Anderson also said that Aggett and other comrades advised him to leave the country as his life was in danger. He then fled to Botswana and returned in 1995.
Anderson was in exile when he was told of the death of Aggett.
“I think this was the biggest trauma in my life. I was very close to Neil, closer than my brother. Over the next weeks and months, I started feeling guilty about his death. I felt that it should have been me. I shouldn’t have left the country. It should have been me who was detained and it have been me who was tortured. I even thought that perhaps if Neil hadn’t met me in the first place, he would have never gone on the course that he did,” says Anderson.
Neil Aggett’s body was found hanging in his cell at the notorious John Vorster Square in 1982.