APPIAH SARAVANAN (A S) CHETTY - PIETERMARITZBURG TRADE UNIONIST, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ACTIVIST WHO PLAYED HIS PART IN THE STRUGGLES FOR A FREE AND NON-RACIAL SOUTH AFRICA

(A S CHETTY MEETING NELSON MANDELA IN THE EARLY 1990s) In the struggles against white domination and apartheid in South Africa, many South Africans made enormous contributions for the realisation of the democratic society we enjoy today. One of those we remember in this feature is Appiah Saravanan Chetty, who was a trade unionist and social and political activist of note based in Pietermaritzburg. He passed on in September 2 000 at the age of 72 when he was serving the new South Africa as Deputy Mayor of Pietermaritzburg. Subry Govender, who interviewed Chetty in 1998, pays tribute to yet another stalwart who sacrificed his life for a free and non-racial South Africa. (Photos supplied by photo-journalist colleague, Shan Pillay) BY SUBRY GOVENDER “Well I don’t think one needs to look at ourselves as the Indian community. I am saying that the only way in which the Indian community can entrench itself, is for the people to get interested and to involve themselves in the political affairs of the country. We are South Africans first and foremost and that is what is important.” Appiah Saravanan Chetty, who was popularly known as “A S Chetty”, was speaking to this correspondent in November 1998 at his deputy mayoral office in Pietermaritzburg. Because of his struggle past, he was recruited by the ANC to help in the administration of local government as a councillor. I had made arrangements to interview him at a time when some people had already started to question some of the policies of the new ANC Government, especially its affirmative action policy and its commitment to non-racialism. I wanted to obtain his views on the new South Africa as he was one of the people who had devoted his entire life to the freedom of the people. Born in Dean Street in Pietermaritzburg on April 3 1929, A S Chetty was involved in the political struggles as a journalist, trade unionist, official of the Natal Indian Congress, United Democratic Front and the ANC. He also played a leading role in the adoption of the Freedom Charter in Kliptown, Johannesburg, on June 26 1955.

(A S CHETTY TAKING THE OATH OF OFFICE AS DEPUTY MAYOR IN PIETERMARITZBURG AFTER THE ADVENT OF OUR NEW DEMOCRACY) His political awakening began while still at high school and when as a teenager in the 1950s he joined the Natal Indian Congress. He worked with luminaries such as Dr M M Motala and Archie Gumede in the early 1950s to gather the views of the people in all corners of Pietermaritzburg and surrounding areas for the drafting of the Freedom Charter. He was also a social worker and a person who took a keen interest in the arts and culture. He was also a Tamil linguist of note. His strong bond for the Tamil language and music was nurtured by his grand-parents who had been recruited in the 1860s to work as indentured labourers on the sugar cane fields of the then Natal Colony. He first came under the scrutiny of the former dreaded Security Branch while working as a trade unionist in the 1950s. During this period the Security Branch made it very difficult for him to be employed in the Pietermaritzburg area and life became extremely difficult for him. He only earned a salary on a permanent basis and felt secure when he joined the Pietermaritzburg Indian Child Welfare Society in the 1980s. While working for the Child Welfare Society, he also became actively involved in civic affairs as an official of the Combined Ratepayers’ Association. He also committed his activist services to the Pietermaritzburg Community Chest, Gandhi Memorial Committee, Greys and Northdale Hospital Boards and the Midlands Hindu Society.

(AS CHETTY WITH NELSON MANDELA AT A FUNCTION IN PIETERMARITZBURG DURING HIS TERM AS DEPUTY MAYOR) Like other political, trade union and social activists he was arrested under the State of Emergency in 1960, imprisoned for 98 days, and then was banned for five years from 1973 to 1978. He was banned again for two years in 1981. In 1983 he was again detained, and subsequently placed under house arrest from 1983 to 1988. In 1988 he was banned for the third time for a period until early 1990 when all bannings and restrictions were lifted by the F W de Klerk Government. Prior to the advent of the democratic order in April 1994, Mr Chetty associated himself in the early days of the struggles with leaders of the calibre of Dr M M Motala, Dr Omar Essack, Moses Mabhida, Archie Gumede and S B Mungal and in the 1980s and 1990s with leaders of the calibre of George Sewpersadh, Mewa Ramgobin, M J Naidoo, Dr Farouk Meer, and Paul Devadas David. During the transitional stage after Nelson Mandela was released and the ANC and other organisations were unbanned in early 1990, Mr Chetty played a leading role in mobilising the people to become involved in the ANC. After 1994, Mr Chetty became a member of the Pietermaritzburg Msundusi local government and Deputy Mayor in 1998. Mr Chetty, who at one time was the joint secretary of the Natal Indian Congress in Pietermaritzburg, agreed during the interview in 1998 that the Natal Indian Congress, the South African Indian Congress and the Transvaal Indian Congress had played major roles in the political struggles up to the early 1990s. But in the new, democratic South Africa, South Africans of Indian-origin had to align themselves with the democratic forces of the country. He said: “One time ago we did have the Natal Indian Congress. The Natal Indian Congress did play its role, politically speaking. But today we have the African National Congress which is the majority party in parliament and as I could see it, the ANC will be the ruling party for some time to come. If we continue to look ourselves as Indians politically-speaking, then we would be lost without a political party. As far as I am concerned, the best political party that can accommodate the majority’s aspirations in this country is the ANC.”

(A S Chetty with his wife, Saras, at a function in Pietermaritzburg post-1994) Mr Chetty also had some clear views about the application of affirmative action, a subject that to this day still promotes disillusionment among some people. He said: “I think sooner or later the old progressive movement must start looking at the question of affirmative action very seriously and closely. At this moment in time, the dust is still in the air. Once the dust is settled down we will be able to state from the State that these jobs must be given on merit. When this happens, then only we would be able to say that affirmative action must be positively spread among the four racial groups.” Mr Chetty has not been forgotten now that he is no longer with us. One of the government buildings in Church Street, Pietermaritzburg has been re-named as the “A S Chetty Centre”. This is an apt gesture as those who knew him at close hand, like veteran Pietermaritzburg journalist, Shan Pillay, say “A S Chetty” committed himself to the freedom, social, civic and community struggles despite the hardships he suffered at the hands of the Security Branch and difficulties in finding a secure full-time employment for most of his life. All of us should not only continue to remember Struggle activists like A S Chetty but also try to emulate today their phenomenal lives. Ends – subrygovender@gmail.com