POOMANIE MOODLEY – ONE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN WOMEN ACTIVISTS OF INDIAN-ORIGIN IN THE 1950s and 1960s WHO PLAYED HER PART IN THE STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM, JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY

In August 1982 at a time when the former apartheid regime was conducting one of its most repressive campaigns against democratic forces fighting for justice, freedom and democracy, an Indian-origin women freedom fighter, Miss Poomanie Moodley, died suddenly at the age of 56. The Press Trust of South Africa News Agency, which was operating under trying conditions at this time, compiled the following article about her struggle involvement on August 12 1982. The article was distributed to the media in India and other countries. August 12 1982 POOMANIE MOODLEY – ONE OF SOUTH AFRICA’S FIRST INDIAN-ORIGIN WOMEN IN THE POLITICAL STRUGGLES DIES One of South Africa’s early Indian-origin women to be involved in the political struggles against the white minority in the country died at Durban’s King Edward V111 Hospital on Wednesday, August 11 – three days after she had taken part in the National Womens’ Day gathering in the city. Miss Poomanie Moodley, 56, died of heart attack. Miss Moodley, a top member of the Natal Indian Congress at the time of her death, became introduced to the harsh realities of South African life when as a young girl she used to join her father to protest meetings at Durban’s famous “Red Square”. They used to live in the historical Clairwood area of Durban at that time. She joined the youth wing of the Congress and later the Congress Alliance, which was made up of the African National Congress, South African Indian Congress, Coloured Peoples’ Congress and the white Congress of Democrats. As a member of the Congress Alliance she played a leading role in organising black women in the Anti-Pass Campaigns, the Defiance Campaign, protests against the Bantu Education Act and in the trade union movement. Miss Moodley, a nursing sister by profession, started a trade union for nurses at King George V TB Hospital in Durban in 1960 in order to improve the working conditions of black nurses. But her efforts were short-lived when she became one of the first persons to be detained under the “90 day Law”, without any access to lawyers, friends or families. She was detained again for 90 days in 1964 – this time for allegedly being a member of an unlawful organisation. And in 1965 she was detained under a new 10-day detention law for participating in literary classes organised by the Congress Alliance. The Pretoria Government found the literary classes to be subversive and banned the programme. Just a few days before her untimely death, Miss Moodley gave one of her rare press interviews when she spoke to the Press Trust of SA News Agency. Recalling the early struggles of the black people, especially the women, Miss Moodley said that she was heartened by the fact that the younger generation today were continuing in the same vein for liberation as their fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters in the struggle. She dismissed the latest constitutional proposals of the South African Prime Minister, P.W. Botha, and said it was not what her true leaders had been fighting for. “Botha’s grand scheme at white domination is not what our people are fighting for, dying for, imprisoned for and going into exile for. We must have a complete and full say in the Government and a fair and equal distribution of the country’s immense wealth. “I want to see our True leaders taking their rightful place in Government,” said Miss Moodley. Miss Moodley was laid to rest after a funeral service in Clairwood. She was lauded by the Natal Indian Congress, South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) and the exiled ANC for her contributions to the struggles for a free and democratic South Africa. – ends (Press Trust of SA News Agency, August 12 1982).