DR ABU BAKER ASVAT – A BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS ACTIVIST WHO WAS SHOT DEAD IN JANUARY 1989 UNDER MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES

 

                                                 

 DR ABU BAKER ASVAT

                                                              
One of South Africa’s prominent black consciousness activists, who was murdered under mysterious circumstances inside his surgery in Soweto on January 27 1989, left a great impact on the country’s political development. 

Dr Abu Baker Asvat, known as the “people’s doctor”, was only 46-years-old when two hired hitmen entered his surgery on the pretext of seeking medical attention. 

One of the men fired two shots, killing Dr Asvat instantly in front of his nurse, Mrs Albertina Sisulu, who was the wife of the jailed leader of the ANC, Walter Sisulu, at that time. 
Dr Asvat, although a black consciousness activist who was in the forefront of the establishment of the Azanian Peoples’ Organisation (AZAPO), enlisted Mrs Sisulu as his nurse at a time when she was facing serious harassment at the hands of the apartheid security police. 
He did not allow political differences to interfere with his humanitarian work and care for all people. He went out of his way to ensure that Mrs Sisulu was taken care of and that she had sufficient time to visit her husband regularly on Robben Island prison. 

          "MY SON DIED IN MY HANDS" - MRS ALBERTINA SISULU

When Dr Asvat’s family rushed to the surgery after he was shot, Mrs Sisulu looked at the grieving family members and cried: “My son died in my hands”. Dr Asvat was also a personal physician to Mrs Winnie Mandela, who lived nearby his surgery. 

                                   THE SON OF AN INDIAN SHOP-KEEPER 

The son of a shop-keeper, who had travelled to the then Transvaal province from the state of Gujerat in India in the early 1900s, Dr Asvat studied medicine in the former East and West Pakistan (now Bangladesh and Pakistan). 
After he returned to South Africa in the late 1960s, Dr Asvat set up a surgery in an informal settlement known as Mochoeneng in Soweto. He became very close to the residents and was well-known to every single family of the settlement. 

               BECAME INVOLVED IN BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE 1970s

While practising here in the 1970s and early 1980s, he became active in the black consciousness movement and helped in the formation of Azapo. Later he took charge of Azapo’s health programme and travelled around the country to help the rural people with their medical requirements. 
It was because of this close association with the residents that the apartheid authorities started to make life difficult for him by taking steps to evict from the area. 

     DR ASVAT WAS PRESIDENT OF THE NON-RACIAL TRANSVAAL CRICKET BOARD  

Dr Asvat, who was popularly known as Hurley, was also a keen cricketer and helped to promote non-racial cricket as a counter to the all-white South African Cricket Association. He helped to start the Transvaal Cricket Board and was its chairperson until 1980. The Transvaal Cricket Board was affiliated to the non-racial South African Cricket Board of Control (SACBOC). 
 It’s now 31 years since he was murdered on January 27 1989. 
Although his killing was investigated and heard by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), that was established after the advent of our new South Africa in 1994, there seems to have been no justice in finding the real truth behind his thoughtless murder. 
Six years earlier in 1983, the Press Trust of South Africa News Agency published an article about Dr Asvat facing the eviction orders and his efforts to continue to serve the local people of Soweto. The article was published under the headline: “Community Doctor Under Eviction Orders” on August 9 1983. This was the article that was published and circulated around the world. 

                                            

                    COMMUNITY DOCTOR UNDER EVICTION ORDERS 

August 9 1983 A tiny shack settlement in the giant dormitory township of Soweto, near Johannesburg, in South Africa has been plunged into a crisis following the Pretoria Government’s Department of African Affairs decision to expel an Indian medical doctor and the settlement’s close friend, Dr Abu Baker Asvat. 
The wrangle over Dr Asvat’s presence at the Mochoeneng shack settlement in the heart of Soweto began when he received a letter from the authorities on September 13 1982. The letter informed Dr Asvat that the authorities intended shifting all the people from the area as part of a new planning programme. However, he was told to remain at his surgery until such time that the township manager had organised alternative accommodation for his practice. 
With high hopes of staying with his close-knit community, Dr Asvat settled down to minister to his people’s needs – a job he has faithfully performed for the past 10 years. But Dr Asvat’s hopes of staying on with his community were shattered a few days later when he received a vacation order from the township manager and the superintendent of the area. Attached to the vacation order was a deadline – either be out of Mochoeneng by 1 August 1983 or face being physically evicted by armed police and officials through a court order. 

                 AZAPO'S HEAD OF MEDICAL SECRETARIAT

But this unilateral action on the part of the authorities only infuriated the man who was recently elected head of the medical secretariat of the Azanian Peoples’ Organisation (AZAPO). “I will sit out the deadline. If they are determined they will use a court order and break my doors and windows and throw out my belongings onto the street,” Dr Asvat told the Press Trust of SA News Agency in an interview. Speaking about his ties with the small community, Dr Asvat said he had come to know every family in the settlement and they had also developed an extended family system. “We have all shared sorrows and happiness. To know people so closely happens once in a lifetime.” 

                 HE WAS MORE THAN A DOCTOR TO THE COMMUNITY

Dr Asvat’s patrons have also been shattered by the news that he was being forced to move out of the area. When approached for comment, Mrs Emily Mohloki, who has stayed in the area for 10 years, said Dr Asvat’s eviction order would hurt the community. 
“If he goes we are doomed. He has been more than a doctor to us. Whether we had money or not, he treated us. He often took critically ill patients to hospital by himself.” 

Dr Asvat is held in such high esteem by the community that when vandals broke into practice soon after Soweto erupted in protest in June 1976, local youngsters joined the vandals and took as much as they could from the surgery. When he re-opened the surgery the following day, a small army of youngsters carrying drugs and equipment – all the material taken from his surgery the night before – marched in and happily deposited his goods on the floor. Dr Asvat was the only doctor whose surgery escaped gutting by fire during the mass protests. Having a final word on the entire episode, Dr Asvat said the bond of brotherly relationship he has built up over the years would not be severed by the authorities. “I will always be at their beck and call, wherever they are or I will be,” a pained Dr Asvat said. 

This article was published by several Indian newspapers under the headlines: "Indian doctor expelled from Soweto"; "South African move to expel Indian doctor"; "Indian doctor's presence in Soweto creates crisis"; "Decision to expel Indian doctor sparks off crisis";  and"Vacation order". Ends – Press Trust of SA Third World News Agency August 9 1983