BARBARA ANN HOGAN – ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN NOVEMBER 1982 BY THE PRESS TRUST OF SA NEWS AGENCY AT THAT TIME AFTER SHE WAS CONVICTED OF HIGH TREASON AND SENTENCED TO 14 YEARS IN PRISON

INTRO: One of the activists of the 1970s and 1980s who paid a heavy price for freedom was 68-year-old Barbara Ann Hogan of Johannesburg. When she was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in November 1982 for High Treason, the independent Press Trust of S A News Agency at that time published the following article and distributed it around the world. After she was released in 1990 when political leaders such as Nelson Mandela were released and the ANC and other organisations were unbanned, Hogan became an active member and official of the ANC. She served as a Minister of Health and Minister of Public Enterprises under President Kgalema Motlanthe. But she was sacked by President Jacob Zuma in 2010 when he was elected to power. Barbara Hogan was married to the late struggle stalwart, Ahmed Kathrada, who passed away in April 2017. The article published by the Press Trust News Agency at that time in 1982 is a tribute to a struggle stalwart who sacrificed a great deal for the freedom of all South Africans. BARBARA HOGAN AS PUBLISHED BY PRESS TRUST OF SA NEWS AGENCY IN NOVEMBER 1982 Barbara Ann Hogan, a human rights activist in South Africa, hit the high note in October 1982 when she became the first woman in the country to be convicted for high treason. Barbara, 30, was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment at the Johannesburg Rand Supreme Court for being a member of the African National Congress (ANC), which is banned in South Africa, and for furthering the aims of the organisation. With so many political trials taking place in South Africa, Barbara would have been a mere statistic. But then, in the South African context she is quite different because as a young white woman with a masters’ degree and coming as she did from a comfortable background, she had the world at her feet. But yet she scorned all the material benefits that awaited her at the end of the rainbow, benefits that come automatically in South Africa if you are a white person. She chose instead to fight for her ideals. During the six-month trial that preceded her sentencing, she would occasionally turn around in the dock and smile bravely at her friends and family members who faithfully attended her trial on each and every day. Scores of her other friends were missing from the public gallery in court; either detained or even dead, as was her friend, Dr Neil Aggett, who was murdered while in detention in February this year (1982). In sentencing her to 14 years in jail, of which she will serve an effective sentence of 10 years, the judge, Mr Justice Van Dyk, said Ms Hogan had carried out her activities for the ANC with enthusiasm and dedication. The judge also noted that the ANC's aim was to overthrow the South African Government by violence and by crippling the economy. After months of high drama as her involvement in the underground activities of the ANC unravelled, sentence was passed in a hushed courtroom. After the sentence was passed, undaunted and wearing green and black and carrying a yellow rose; which also happens to be the ANC colours, she cried out: “Amandla”. There was such power and conviction in her voice that the packed gallery responded to her "power to the people" cry with one voice: "Ngawethu” came the resounding response: "Power is ours". She was led from the dock to begin her sentence. Leave to appeal against the sentence was refused. Who is exactly Barbara Hogan, what drove her to do what she did, and to sacrifice material comfort and privilege? Barbara Hogan belongs to a brave breed of white South Africans, a small and even diminishing breed who abhor apartheid as much as the millions of black South Africans. In South Africa, a country which believes in contrasts - black and white, leftist and rightist politics, them and us, this breed is called the white left. It is a stoic and determined group of people ranging from radical students to such stalwart opponents of apartheid like Helen Joseph, Beyers Naude and a host of others. Just a month before Barbara was sentenced another young person, who also happened to be white, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for ANC activities. His name is Rob Adams. UNDERGROUND ACTIVIST OF THE ANC Barbara Hogan is a self-confessed member of the ANC. She had been assigned to establish a secret communications network and learned a secret code so as to communicate with other ANC networks. Born in a small conservative Transvaal town of Benoni, she attended primary school at the St Dominic Convent and afterwards attended high school in a neighbouring town called Boksburg, She showed her leadership while still at school, becoming Benoni's deputy junior mayor and her school's sports captain. She studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, an institution which has produced more than a fair share of opponents of apartheid, ranging from Mrs Helen Suzman, now a leading member of the official opposition party, to Dr Nthato Motlana of the Soweto Civic Association and chairman of the Committee of Ten. In 1971 Barbara took part in a prohibited demonstration against the detention and solitary confinement of 22 fellow students. COMRADE OF DR NEIL AGGETT She belonged to a close-knit group of people who worked with black trade unions in various capacities, assisting wherever they could. It was at that level that she got to know and befriended Dr Neil Aggett. In fact she and Dr Aggett and scores of leading black trade unionists were detained at about the same time. It is perhaps Barbara's elderly parents who could best sum up the character and hopes of their daughter. Her parents never missed a day of the court proceedings, Barbara's mother, Jean was a nursing sister at Baragranath Hospital, the sprawling hospital complex for blacks which is situated on the outskirts of Soweto. She died in 1967 and Barbara's father remarried when she was 15 years-old. Said her stepmother, Mrs Elizabeth Hogan: "I was always accused of regarding Barbara as my favourite child. She was such a happy person, always laughing and smiling.” She added: "In her spare time she taught people to read and write. She felt that they could look after themselves better if they knew that.” In the tense days prior to judgement day in court, she pleaded in mitigation but to no avail. FAMILY RECALLS HER EARLY LIFE Mrs Hogan said her stepdaughter was a committed South African, who was committed to resolving its problems. “She always tried to fight for the underprivileged and oppressed." Barbara's father recalls that she was never worried about money. He recalls too that as a young girl Barbara kept a press-clippings scrapbook. “One of the first items was about cricketer Basil D'0lviera. She could not understand why D’Oliviera, a fine cricketer, could play test cricket for England but not for South Africa, his own country.” D’Oliviera was a talented coloured cricketer who could not play for the South African cricket side because of apartheid. In 1974 Barbara worked for the Industrial Aid Society as an education worker and in 1977 returned to Wits University to complete her honours' degree in developmental studies. Thereafter she worked for numerous black self-help projects, including the Johannesburg Organisation to Boost Self-Help (Jobs), the Human Awareness Programme and the Rural Development Trust Fund. The Fund assisted with small-scale developmental projects in rural areas. Strong willed but kind, she will be missed by many of her friends. "Inside I know she is feeling deeply," her father said after the sentence. “But she won’t show it." Mr Paul Hogan, 69, used to be a boilermaker and now owns a company which reconditions mining and welding equipment. He said about his daughter: “She was a very quiet and religious girl.” He recalls with amusement how as a young girl she used to love to listen to the radio programme on religion. "She used to be very annoyed when anyone spoke during the programme.” A HEROINE OF THE MAJORITY A statement prepared by the Hogan family and released by her sister, Mrs Sall Cook, following her imprisonment, summed up their feelings about the whole tragedy that is South Africa today. The statement read: “Barbara was not a traitor. It is a tragedy for South Africa that someone like her, who is regarded by the majority of people in this country as being on their side, should be regarded as a traitor by others. “We are proud of Barbara and we admire her for the strength she showed for the 13 months in detention and awaiting trial. She will be 40 years when she is released and it is deeply disappointing that a person of her calibre and commitment should be prevented from making her contribution for so such long a time. A traitor to some but a heroine to the majority of South Africans. It will be wait for Barbara Ann Hogan. Ends – November 1982