GOVIN REDDY – A MEDIA PROFESSIONAL WHO PLAYED HIS ROLE FOR A NON-RACIAL AND DEMOCRATIC SOUTH AFRICA

(MR GOVIN REDDY) BY SUBRY GOVENDER Mr Govin Reddy, a media personality who passed away in the early hours of Friday Oct 13 (2017) morning at the age of 74, was also a struggle activist who contributed and paid the price for South Africa’s freedom. Forty-one years ago in the early hours of August 19 1976, six apartheid security policemen descended on his home in Overport, Durban (near the former famous Admiral Hotel), and detained him under the notorious and infamous Internal Security Act. The security policemen raided and searched his home for more than an hour from 3am to 4am for “communist literature” and for being a “threat to the security of the state”. Mr Reddy, who was a research officer for the South African Institute of Race Relations at this time, was detained along with eight other people in the Durban area and taken to the Modder B Prison in Benoni, near Johannesburg. The others detained were four medical students now doctors – Diliza Mji, David Dube, Norman Dubizane and R. Taoele -; three leaders of the Umlazi Residents Association – Mr Vitu Mvelase, Mr David Gaza, and Mr George Sithole; and Mr Bobby Mari, an activist from the township of Merebank. Prior to his detention, Mr Reddy had just started work with the Institute for Race Relations and was active with leaders of the calibre of Professor Fatima Meer in the Institute for Black Research and with Archbishop Denis Hurley. He also worked very closely with the late Mewa Ramgobin, who was leader of the Natal Indian Congress at this time. A visiting American professor of history, Dr John Rowe, who was a guest of Mr Reddy and his family, was present when the security policemen conducted their raid at Mr Reddy’s home on the morning of August 19 1976. Mr Reddy had studied under the tutorship of Dr Rowe at the Northwestern University in Evaston, Illinois from 1969 to 1973 when he had completed his Masters Degree in History. He had travelled to the United States after completing his BA (Hons) at the then University of Durban-Westville in 1969. Dr Rowe, who was on a tour of Africa at this time, spoke to this correspondent who worked for the Durban Daily News at this time. He said in an interview a day after Mr Reddy’s detention that the raid by the security policemen had been a great shock and a traumatic experience for Mr Reddy’s young wife and year-old son. It was also a traumatic experience for him as a visitor. This is what he told me: “I stood in the pre-dawn darkness watching the police, who kept saying that they were going to keep him (Mr Reddy) for a long time, away from his family. Beside me, his wife held their year-old son in her arms and cried softly as Mr Reddy was being taken away by the police. “Mr Reddy is concerned for the future wellbeing of his country, believing that the best way to combat Communism is to bring the races together rather than keeping them apart.”

Mr Reddy and his fellow detainees were held for four months and during this period, this correspondent visited him at Modder B Prison in Benoni. Asked about his detention and him being away from his young family, he had said: “This incarceration and detention is something that we have to put up with until we get rid of this apartheid regime and establish a non-racial and democratic society. It’s a sacrifice for our freedom.” Mr Reddy and the other activists had been detained at a time when the former apartheid state was conducting massive repressive actions against social, religious, sporting and political leaders in the aftermath of the Soweto uprisings on June 16 1976. On his release on December 29 1976, Mr Reddy was served with a five-year banning order which prevented him from continuing with his work at the Institute of Race Relations. He was banned along with Mr George Sithole, secretary of the Umlazi Residents Association; and Mr Rashid Meer, who was detained a day earlier on August 18. Mr Meer, who is now late, was the only son of Professor Fatima Meer and her husband, Ismail Meer. Mr Reddy set up a small book shop in West Street to “make ends meet”. He later set up an office next to the offices of the Press Trust of S A News Agency in 320 West Street Building to assist leaders such as Griffith Mxenge, Dr Khorshed Ginwala, A E Gangat and Archie Gumede in the launch of the Ukusa newspaper. But the security police came to know of this move and sabotaged the project by regularly raiding the offices of Press Trust and banning the chief proponent, this correspondent. Mr Reddy found that the security policemen were making life difficult for him and sometime in 1981, he skipped the country through the Natal/Swaziland border to go into exile. After being in Swaziland for a few months, Mr Reddy travelled to Europe. He was stationed in Rome in Italy from 1985 to 1988, working for the Inter Press Service (IPS). Through the IPS, he published regular articles on the South African struggles. In this regard, he obtained most of his information through the Press Trust news agency. In 1989 he moved to Harare in Zimbabwe where he worked for the Africa South magazine until 1991. He returned to the country in 1991 and settled in Johannesburg at a time when serious negotiations were taking place between the ANC and other organisations on one side and the apartheid regime on the other for the establishment of a non-racial and democratic society. Mr Reddy put his media expertise into constructive use by joining organisations for the transformation of the broadcast media in the country. After serving as vice-chairperson of the Media Institute of Southern Africa that was based in Windhoek, capital of Namibia, between 1992 and 1993, Mr Reddy served as chairman of the Broadcast Monitoring Project between 1993 and 1994. After the democratic elections in April 1994, Mr Reddy was appointed as the head of radio at the South African Broadcasting Corporation(SABC). He served in this position under the late Zwelike Sisulu, who was the CEO of the SABC after 1994. In 1997, Mr Reddy was appointed acting CEO of the SABC after Mr Sisulu resigned to enter the business world. Mr Reddy had hoped to be appointed to this position on a permanent basis but was forced to move out of the SABC in 1998 after major differences with some members of the SABC Board. Despite the unpleasant treatment by the SABC, Mr Reddy continued to work in the media sphere as President of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association in 1998. Then for three years he worked as Chief Executive of the Mail and Guardian until 2002. Between 2002 and 2008 he served the media and business world in a number of capacities. These included the Sol Plaatjie Media Leadership Institute at Rhodes University, Media Development and Development Agency, The Media Magazine, IPS, International Marketing Council of South Africa and the South African Business Forum in India. At the time of his passing on August 13, Mr Reddy was a non-executive Director of the National Lotteries Board and Professor Extraordinary in the Department of Journalism at Stellenbosch University and Department of Political Science at Pretoria University. He was also chairperson of the IPS Africa and members of Advisory Board of the Centre for Indian Studies at the University of Witwatersrand. I had come to know Mr Reddy very closely and became a family friend and colleague after one day in the early 1970s he walked into the newsroom of the Daily News in the former Field Street, Durban. When I saw him I walked up to him and asked him whether I could help him. He told me that he had just returned from the United States and that he had been appointed a research officer at the Durban offices of the S A Institute of Race Relations. He had a press release on his appointment and asked whether we could publish it. I told him that he must leave it with me and I would write a story about his appointment. The following day Mr Reddy telephoned to thank me for the article saying it had been published in the news column of the Daily News. Since then I used to visit him regularly at his office and even at his home in Overport. We became comrades in the struggle against white minority rule and domination. Mr Reddy’s funeral took place on Oct 16 2017 at the Brixton crematorium in Johannesburg. The funeral was attended mainly by family members and friends. A memorial service was held for him at the SABC in Auckland Parl in Johannesburg on Sunday, October 22 (2017). Mr Reddy, who was born in the Wyebank area, west of Durban, is survived by his wife, Tessa, four children – Sudeshan, Priya, Maica, Nyal, a new-born grandchild and several siblings, nephews, nieces and cousins. Ends – subrygovender@gmail.com Oct 16 2017