FLORENCE MKHIZE - ONE OF SOUTH AFRICA'S WOMEN LEADERS WHO MADE ENORMOUS SACRIFICES FOR THE FREEDOM WE ENJOY TODAY

(SUBRY GOVENDER INTERVIEWING FLORENCE MKHIZE AT GRIFFITH MXENGE'S OFFICE IN THE FORMER GREY STREET AREA OF DURBAN IN AUGUST 1982. NOT SURE OF THE NAME OF THE COMRADE IN THE BACKGROUND) BY SUBRY GOVENDER One of the women leaders who made enormous sacrifices for the freedom that we enjoy today is Florence Mkhize of Durban. Born in 1932, Mkhize died in July 1999 at the age of 67. In August 1982 when she was serving her third five-year banning order imposed by the former apartheid regime, I had the opportunity of talking to her about her involvement in the political struggles. I spoke to her at the offices of another political stalwart and lawyer, Griffith Mxenge, in the former Grey Street area of Durban. This is the article that I had written and circulated on August 19 1982: “SUFFERING IS OUR LIFE” When the true history of South Africa is written in the near future it is certain that the name of Ms Florence Mkhize will feature prominently in the section concerning the country’s women leaders. Forty-two-year-old Ms Mkhize, who is serving her third term of five-year banning orders, is one of the many unsung heroes of the struggle for justice and freedom in South Africa. Although she has been constantly harassed and intimidated since she was first banned in March 1962, Ms Mkhize has not lost her determination and hope that South Africa will be free sooner than many people cared to think about. “No matter how tyrannical the white National Party Government becomes and how many people are banned, jailed, killed or forced into exile, we will eventually win because the Government cannot jail and ban all the people,” she told me. “It is, therefore, important that the struggle must go on no matter what the sacrifice. Our struggle is a just and moral one.” Ms Mkhize, who is the mother of four teenage children, first became involved in the struggle for justice in 1956 when she found the “pass law” offenders were being treated as criminals and the “bantu education system” was geared at producing slave labour for the mines and other capital industries than aimed at literacy. In 1960 at the age of 20 she joined the South African Womens’ Federation, which was an affiliate of the African National Congress(ANC), in an attempt to improve the lot of African women who were the most exploited of the oppressed people of South Africa. Within a year she became the secretary of the Natal branch of the organisation and an executive member of the national body. But at the early age of 22 her introduction into the political struggle was cut short when the authorities served her with a five-year banning order in 1962. Immediately after being banned and house-arrested, she began working for a group of Indian tailors, Chetty Brothers, in Durban with whom she is still employed 22 years later. When Chief Albert Luthuli, the then banned president of the ANC died mysteriously in a train accident in August 1967, she began organising a memorial service with a group of ANC members. She was asked by the Durban security police to stop her involvement but she defied them and even travelled to Groutville, on the Natal North Coast, for Luthuli’s funeral. The authorities arrested her and jailed her for three months. When she was released, she was served with another five-year banning order, which this time restricted her to her home between 7pm and 6am every day. During her second banning order, she married a Transkei medical doctor, Amos Msimane, who was 30 years her senior. “I married him because he was very understanding and accepted my involvement in the political struggles. Inspite of the heavy responsibility, we still managed to have four children who are now all grown up. Barnett is 24, Wiseman 22, Elizabeth 19 and Buthle, 15. “They too are very understanding and do not regret one bit that their mother is banned and restricted. They know that we have to suffer and sacrifice if we are to win in the end.” When the second banning order expired in 1973, she moved straight back into the hurly-burly of the political struggles by openly and vociferously condemning the Bantustan policy of the National Government and what she describes as “their puppet leaders”. She was especially strong in her condemnation of some of the well-known bantustan leaders who claimed they were members of the ANC and followers of Chief Luthuli. Late in 1978 when moves were started to get Nelson Mandela and other ANC leaders released from Robben Island, she immediately joined the Release Mandela Committee and worked tirelessly with the chairman, Mr Archie Gumede. She also involved herself in the Natal Indian Congress’s boycott campaign against the National Party Government’s South African Indian Council(SAIC) elections. She addressed a number of meetings in Durban and in the surrounding Indian townships, exhorting the Indian people to stay away from the “apartheid elections”. Her efforts were not in vain as 90 percent of the people, who were registered voters, boycotted the elections. This and her opposition to the bantustans prompted the authorities to serve her with yet another five-year banning order in 1981. “I am not worried because suffering is our life. As far as I am concerned the struggle goes on in spite the bannings, detentions, killings and jailing of our leaders. “Peace will only come to South Africa when Pretoria negotiates with our true leaders on Robben Island and in exile.” Ends – Press Trust of South Africa Third World News Agency, August 19 82

RECALLING WHAT FORMER PRESIDENT, JACOPB ZUMA, PROMISED IN 2011 THAT LOCAL COUNCILLORS WHO DON’T CARRY OUT THEIR DUTIES EFFECTIVELY WOULD BE “FLUSHED OUT”.

NOW THAT A NUMBER OF COUNCILLORS IN THE ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY HAVE BEEN BOOTED OUT IN AUGUST 2019, I WANT TO BRING YOU AN ARTICLE THAT I HAD WRITTEN IN JUNE 2011 WHEN FORMER PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA PROMISED TO "FLUSH OUT" COUNCILLORS WHO FAILED TO ACT IN THE INTERESTS OF RATEPAYERS AND RESIDENTS. BY SUBRY GOVENDER (JUNE 1 2011) Councillors should be accountable or face being "flushed out" Now that the 2011 Local Government elections have been finalised and dusted, the real work begins. But whether the elected and PR councillors will deliver is another matter altogether. In our interaction with ratepayers and residents prior to the elections, we have found that their concerns vary from area to area. For those living in informal settlements their main concerns revolve around provision of decent housing and facilities such as electricity, sanitation, proper roads, health care, proper schools, refuse removal and lack of sports grounds. For those in townships and well-endowed suburbs their concerns are mainly about the upgrading of CBDs in towns such as Tongaat and Verulam, maintenance of sports grounds and open spaces, clean streets and verges, a clean environment, and tackling the high crime rate. Soon after the election results were announced, President Jacob Zuma informed the successful elected councillors that they would have to commit themselves to uplifting the lives of people and attending to the civic and social problems in their wards and councils. He warned that those who fail in their duties would be flushed out. "Councillors must be accountable," he stressed. The elected and PR councillors in the major Metros such as eThekwini, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town are paid huge salaries and perks. For instance in eThekwini, councillors are reported to earn as much as R350 000 a year. In any language, this salary is way too extravagant and excessive for many of the councillors when compared to the amount of work they really carry out on behalf of the people. Except for a few committed councillors, for most their cosy work is not only about earning "easy money" but also to enrich themselves, their families and friends through tenders and other means. For them the concerns and problems of the people they are supposed to represent at local government level take second place. For them they have not heard of evils such as corruption, fraud, bribery, thievery and nepotism.

One of the councillors who appears to have some conscience is unfortunately not situated in our region. He is Mr Tony Ehrenreich, the secretary of Coastu in the Western Cape who stood as the ANC's mayoral candidate in Cape Town. Asked about his dual role as a trade union leader and councillor, he had this to say: "I will not accept my councillor's salary in the traditional manner. As long as I'm still in Cosatu I will put the salary in a trust fund and use it to advance workers." Although Ehrenreich did not say that he would not accept any salary as a councillor, the fact that he would not accept "two salaries" at the same time is an indication of his commitment to serving the people. The fiery leader also appeared to know his priorities as a councillor, unlike the leeches we find in eThekwini and other municipalities. He made it clear that the rates collected should be used to address the needs of Cape Town's entire population. He would especially work to promote the concerns of the poor. "We want to make sure we raise our points that the budget doesn't reject the urgent needs of poor communities." Oh, how I wish we had the quality of an Ehrenreich in eThekwini. Let's sincerely hope the Tony Ehrenreichs are not a dying breed. For those in our midst who don't qualify as a "Tony Ehrenreich", let's hope that they will at least try to be clean, honest, sincere and committed to serving the people in their wards. If not, they should be "flushed out" as promised by President Zuma. - Subry Govender, Chief Editor June 1 2011

RECALLING “MALEMA SAYS” IN 2011 WHEN JULIUS MALEMA WENT AROUND THE COUNTRY TO CANVAS FOR THE ANC DURING THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS

By Subry Govender The local government elections held on Wednesday, May 18 (2011) was one of the most hotly-contested elections since 1994. The political parties and the candidates went overboard in their campaigns to outdo one another. During this process, some of the politicians used the lowest and basest rhetoric to smear their opponents. The president of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, won gold medal for his "Malema says" when he travelled around the country, spitting and shouting at his opponents. His first stop was in Cape Town where he used the open-toilet saga in Khayelitsha to lampoon the DA for violating the human dignity of "African people". The DA-controlled Cape Town city council was found to have built 51 toilets without enclosures in Makhaza, Khayelitsha in December 2009. During his Cape Town electioneering campaign, Malema, his bodyguards and supporters drove to the house of the leader of DA, Ms Helen Zille, where they pasted ANC posters on an electricity pole just outside Zille's house. When asked by a reporter why he was putting up posters outside the home of Ms Zille, he responded by saying that the DA leader should also vote for the ANC because the DA was "in shit". But while enjoying the agony in which the DA found itself, Malema had to quickly dash to Rammulotsi township, near Viljoenskroon in the Free State province where it was found that ANC-run Moqhaka municipality had built 1 600 toilets without any enclosures. What was even more embarrassing was that the Mayor, Mantebu Mokgosi's husband had been granted a contract to build the open toilets. They were called "toiletpreneurs". All that the fazed motor mouth could do was to call for "heads to roll. CRIMINALS Despite being brought down to earth, the foul mouth continued with his ramblings at an election rally in Kimberley where he labelled white people as "criminals". This is what he had said: "We have to take the land without payment, because the whites took our land without paying and transformed them into game farms. The system of willing seller, willing buyer has failed. We all agree they stole the land. They are criminals, they should be treated like that. It is taking too long for the land to be handed back. "The money is in the hands of only 10 percent of the population who are handling about 90 percent of the wealth in the country. The money is in the hands of the Oppenheimers. The Oppenheimers took our minerals. Galeshewe hasn’t shared in the bounty of the diamond mines." At another election campaign meeting in Kimberley, Malema scolded township residents for protesting against the ANC when it was the ANC that provided them with jobs, schools, homes, electricity and water. "You cannot complain about the lack of service delivery while watering the lawn in front of your RDP house. When protesting they burn tyres on a tar road but they complain no delivery." 'MUGABE OF SOUTH AFRICA" In one of his several visits to KwaZulu-Natal, the "Mugabe of South Africa" took swipes at the leader of the IFP, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, calling him a "sickly old man" who don't want to retire. However, he did not have the courage to travel to hometown in Zululand to put up ANC posters outside Buthelezi's home. IFP supporters wanted to teach him "some manners". "MADAM" At the ANC's final and biggest election rally in Johannesburg, Malema received the loudest applause when he once again danced and shouted his racist comments. He said: "The DA is for the whites, it is not for you. The ANC has no serious challenger in the coming elections. Even 'the madam' knows that she cannot compete with the ANC." This was an obvious reference to Helen Zille's vigorous campaigns in Soweto and mainly-black townships around the country. Malema has himself been called all kinds of names by his opponents and political analysts. One of the most telling comments came from cartoonist, Nanda Soobben. He said: "We need a toilet duck to clean Malema's mouth... unfortunately, we have a 'lame' one." "BLUE WITCHES"

A former leader of the ANC Youth League, Fikile Mbalula, also raised the attention of people when he addressed an election rally in Kimberley last week. Referring to the women leaders of the DA, he said: "They are three little blue witches."

The leader of the ANC, Jacob Zuma, also drew the attention of the people when he told supporters at two meetings in Port Elizabeth and Lichtenburg that their ancestors will turn against those leaving the ANC. "The ancestors will turn their backs against you and you will be bad luck forever if you leave the ANC unhappy. "When you vote for a party that is going to lose, then your vote is wasted. That vote does not help South Africa at all." Zuma's latest comments had drawn sharp reactions from traditional and religious leaders, who previously had condemned the ANC leader for saying that "the ANC will rule until Jesus returns". Said one commentator: "I think the ancestors are turning in their graves at the liberties JZ is taking. He now speaks for me, the other voters, Jesus, God, the ancestors, who else only the all powerful Swami Zuma knows. Jacob, seeing that you are so well connected, tell Elvis 'Hi' from me and let Santa know that I am still p-off with the present I got in my stocking last year. I am now seriously doubting the mental stability of our president and his advisors.' The election campaigns have done wonders for the country. Freedom of speech and multi-party democracy have been strengthened while at the same exposing the racism of the "Mugabe" who will turn our beautiful country into another Zimbabwe if he is not brought to heel soon. - Subry Govender, Chief Editor (May 18 2011)

BEAUTIFUL TRIBUTE TO OUR MOTHERS

RECALLING AN INTERVIEW WITH DR NAVANTHEM PILLAY AFTER SHE WAS NOMINATED AS UN HUMAN RIGHTS HIGH COMMISSIONER IN JULY 2008 Another woman leader of Indian-origin who should be recognised during this Womens’ Month in South Africa is Dr Navanethem Pillay. From humble, working class beginnings in the suburb of Clairwood in Durban, Dr Pillay rose to be appointed as UN Human Rights Commissioner in September 2008. Her nomination was approved by the UN at the end of July 2008. She held the position from September 2008 to 2014. After she was nominated, I had the privilege of interviewing her at her home in Durban. In this radio documentary, which was produced after the interview, concentrates about her early life in Clairwood, university education, and her work as a lawyer.



I also transcribed the interview for print: 1. Your early life? I lived and grew up in Clairwood where it was a mixed community. African, coloured and Indian everyone got on very well. It was very safe you trusted everyone. It was an extremely poor community but there was a community feeling about that place. To go back a bit about the background - my grand-father was brought here as an indentured labourer to work in the sugar cane fields. He lost both his arms in the mill, they were cut off. But he remained self-supporting. He became a sardar and he remained. He supported himself and he had two wives. He died at age 87. He had two sons, my father as everybody knows was a bus driver. my father had seven children. My father was different from most people of my generation. He felt that all the children were equal and he had to educate the girls as well as the boys. So whereas my friends in high school at age 15 16 had to leave school because their parents had arranged marriages for them, I continued with my education. I would never have been able to go to university had it not been for the people of Clairwood. The principal of the high school, Mr V Naidoo, and the teachers went around the community and they collected funds to send this young girl who has the potential to university. And it was the V Naidoo Bursary Fund I think which still continues because when I qualified as a lawyer, I paid back the money, so that other students would benefit. It was very difficult times. You had the simplest of foods. My mother grew all the vegetables in the garden and we all helped her. Looking back it was clearly a far more healthy lifestyle to eat lots of fresh vegetables and meat occasionally. My mother and father worked extremely hard. I remember that they even built the house together brick by brick actual physical labour. So all the children are educated and are in the professions. My father died two years ago after reaching the age of 100. Teenage Marriage? My father was such a dominant personality that he had the say and my mother wholly supported that. My brothers would not say that, they were not competitive in that respect. My mother always believed in education and she said that her father wouldn't send her to school because he said that once she learns to write she would write letters to boyfriends and so he forbade her from going to school. She was Telugu-speaking and she taught herself and she was highly-skilled. "These are the people who are my role models. They had nothing and they taught themselves. Daily they thought about how to improve themselves and she said that girls you must have an education so that you won't be a slave to men. The expression is very beautiful in Tamil that you should never be a slave to a man. That's how we were brought up and it was Indian only schools , Indian teachers - highly-dedicated teachers." Tamil traditions! We were brought up very strictly according to Tamil and Hindu traditions regular prayers and so on. We attended the Sunday service at the temple every Sunday and when I was 12 or 13 I ended up as Tamil teacher because I completed all the grades and they didn't know what to do with me so they made me a teacher. We knew all the Thevaram songs and would sing it every weekend at the temple. We had no newspaper at home and we had no radio. But we had to learn English because at school we had to learn English. So gradually what happened in our home also happened in most other homes the children would speak to their parents in English and the parents had to adapt and learn the language as well and so we almost forgotten our own mother tongue. When I started law practice I used to speak Tamil. The elderly used to find that very helpful especially when we were talking about the will and so on. I think if I have a three month refresher course I will be fluent again becaue it's all deep inside me obviously it's my language. My father spoke excellent Tamil and Telugu. What I want to say about education is that it was apartheid education. The whole history was what the whites wanted us to understand. In that respect we were indoctrinated and I think if any child tried to be confident and think outside the mould would make it and some of us did. And I can recall many instances and I am surprised now that at such a young age I tried to distinguish between what was just and unjust and what's right and wrong. University! In primary and high school is that you had everything second hand so these old books came from white schools, desks came from white schools. So you understood that you were being disadvantaged because of your colour. Secondly there was the pegging act at that time where they took away the land owned by Indians later it became the group areas act - so the community of Indians were highly organised in protesting that and then we had the history of Gandhi and the peaceful marches that even women joined in. Those traditions affected us. In high school I would have been there between 12 and 16 - the high school campuses were very volatile students were very alert. I remember some students would have pamphlets printed against the Group Areas Act for instance and they would hide them in their socks because there were constant raids Teachers were under contract not to speak about anything political. So it was extremely artificial system where we were all suffering out there where we could not speak about if openly in the classroom. And one year the security police raided our school because the students went on a strike and they rounded up all the prefects. They were trying to find ringleaders and so on. And I remember how the principal and teachers stood back. It was almost like the secret police and took over our school. And so I spoke up. I spoke up we were assigned duty stations and that's where we were and I remember how they stared at me because they were looking for ring leaders. Of course I wondered why the teachers and other children did not speak out. It was an environment where we were all intimidated because the penalties were so strong - you could be out of school, your parents could be jailed, detained for protesting. At university everyone was hyper alert. You then are with students of all race groups - Africans whites and I was part of the student movement and the National Unity Movement which spoke about imperialism and how the wealth of the country is owned by big businesses outside the country. So you get a political education at university. That's where I met my late husband - Paranjothy Athony Gaby Pillay and the others were Sunny Venketratnam, Kader Hashim, Enver Motala, Mogan Moodliar, John Samuels and just very many others. World Situation? I agree that the current times are fraught with stress and tensions and huge suffering all over the world. You will find that in recent times in conflicts and wars its civilians and mainly women and children who are the victims rather than soldiers fighting other soldiers.We are the living in terrifying times. My intention as high commissioner is to do what the General Assmebly has mandated me to do. They set up this position of an independent officer who will protect human rights of people all over the world across all countries. It's an enormous task I haven't started yet. I am going to consult everybody civil society organ siations, the personnel of 1000 people who have been running this office so far, various representatives of states, and of course the secretary general and the secretariat. I am going to do a broadbased consultation and of course familiarise myself with what has been done to date and then move forward. How will you tackle these issues? "You know I have spent the last 13 years committed to the principle of accountability and end to impunity. To hold political leaders and military leaders to account and punish them. So that's the principle of retributive justice which victims want and which the UN want because they set up these tribunals and the permanent court. As a judge I myself have sentenced five political leaders to life imprisonment which is a very strong way of dealing with leaders who commit serious crimes both violent crimes and economic crimes. But criminal prosecution is just one aspect. "Now as High Commissioner it gives me the opportunity to address this from different points of view. "People say you use the carrot or stick, pressure or diplomacy. I hope I can speed up my skills in this direction but I intend to plunge in." "One has to understand that I have no national loyalty when dealing with human rights violations. You have loyalties to the rule of law, justice and human rights principles. Secondly the High Commissioners office has the same standard for all countries. Sam standards of adherence - so whether it's Zimbabwe or any other country that would be the standard. The High Commissioner's office will not concentrate on any one country. If we do that it will affect the credibility of the office. You will accept that whereve victims are suffering or human rights are being violated, the High Commissioner will step in and be the voice for those people. "My attitude is that we just don't voice we don't to just speak about it you want to as far as possible to achieve results for victims. I can't tell you now that I have some magic solutions for that but I am going to follow the approahces followed by the previous high commissioner where she set up field officers in 50 states ton help governments themselves to build capacity or to help civilsociety organisations in those countries to build their capacities so that they can make their demands." Sudan? "The prosecutor is an independent director. He has been tasked by the UN General resolution which referred to the situation in Darfur. he has prepared his do0cuments. It will be a joint decision of judges to see whether there's sufficient evidence to indict the president of Sudan. "If there is there sufficient evidence then they will authorise the indictment or the warrant of arrest. "Finally the ICC guarantees fair trial. It's a judicial process. We are not talking about lynching and hanging. We have established a mechanism to deal with things like this. The President of Sudan or anyone else is innocent until the charges are proved against him." Sri Lanka? "Human rights violations all over the world, including Sri Lanka, will be covered by the High Commissioner. We are already doing so. We have many staff in the office addressing the situation in Sri Lanka. I think that conflicts that drag on for so long and are so heavily political asre huge challenge for all of us. But we can never give up we must ensure that victims on both sides are protected." Terrorism? "The crime of terrorism is still being defined if I may begin by looking at the law. The crime of aggression is still to be defined and once it is it will come under the supervision of the international criminal court. I think every country is dealing with terrorism. It 's a most insidious form of violence because it affects innocent people in large numbers. May be many states are totally unprepared for these kind of crimes. It's very difficult I imagine to have these kind of crimes investigated. And we always seem to be reacting to such crimes instead of being able to pre-empt them. I am troubled as you about these serious activities that seem to be feature of our current lives." August 2008

MRS ALIMAL COOPER - REMEMBERING A SECOND GENERATION DESCENDANT OF INDENTURED LABOURERS WHO PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN THE CULTURAL, RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL FIELDS IN SOUTH AFRICA

INTRO: In this month of August in 2019 when we in South Africa celebrate the lives of women, I bring you the life of a second generation descendant of indentured labourers, Mrs Alimal Ramalinga Cooper. Mrs Cooper, who died six years ago at the age of 83 on October 10 2013, was one of South Africa's most independent-minded Indian-origin women leaders. Mrs Cooper, who was born in the port city of Durban, came under the close scrutiny and victimisation of the former apartheid regime in the 1980s when her sons, Saths and Revabalan Cooper, were detained, arrested, charged and imprisoned for their involvement in the black consciousness struggles. I had the privilege of talking to Mrs Cooper about her life and struggles at her home in Durban in early 2 000. I compiled this radio documentary soon after her demise in October 2013 as a tribute to Mrs Cooper.