SAM KIKINE - A TRADE UNION LEADER WHO WAS IN THE FRONT LINE FOR FREEDOM DESPITE THE HARASSMENT AND INTIMIDATION AT THE HANDS OF THE DREADED APARTHEID SECURITY POLICE

 

         

 

At the end of November 2018, I had the opportunity of running into veteran trade union, social and community activist and leader, Sam Kikine, at the Durban City Hall in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
Sam Kikine, 71, and I had joined scores of other former activists at a memorial service for human rights activist, Paddy Kearney, who died suddenly at the age of 76 on Friday, November 23.
Our meeting brought back memories of our interactions when I worked for the Daily News between 1973 and 1980, for the Press Trust of SA News Agency between 1983 and 1994 and between 1994 and 2009 when I was a senior political correspondent for the SABC.
Sam Kikine was one of the founding members of the South African Allied Workers Union (SAAWU) in the 1970s and he used to occupy an office in a building in the former Victoria Street (now Bertha Mkhize Street) area of Durban.
In the 1980s, in addition to his trade union activities, he became involved with the United Democratic Front (UDF) and other progressive organisations in the struggles for a non-racial and democratic South Africa.
In 1984 he was one of 16 anti-apartheid leaders and activists charged with High Treason at the Pietermaritzburg High Court. They were Mewa Ramgobin, M J Naidoo, Archie Gumede, Paul Devadas David, George Sewpersadh, Albertina Sisulu, Essop Jassat, Aubrey Mokoena, Curtis Nkondo, Ebrahim Salojee, Ismail Mahomed, Thozamile Gqweta, Frank Chikane, and Isaac Ngcobo.
But after nearly two years, all 16 were found not guilty and discharged.
In 1982 the Press Trust of SA News Agency published an article on Sam Kikine about the harassment and intimidation that he faced at the hands of the apartheid authorities.
The article was published under the headline: “The strange case of Sam Kikine” on August 13 1982 and distributed around the world.

This is the article:

 

           

             THE STRANGE CASE OF SAM KIKINE

August 13 1982

 

Mr Sam Kikine, a leading black South African trade unionist, is a person who is not easily ruffled by the problems he encounters in the course of his work but a current court action against him under the country’s Terrorism Act leaves him dumfounded.
Mr Kikine, the 33-year-old secretary general of the 95 000-strong South African Allied Workers Union(SAAWU), has already appeared four times in a Durban magistrates’ court but the authorities have not yet specified the charges against him.
He is out on bail of R500 – the first time that a Terrorism Act accused has been allowed bail while the authorities frame charges.
Mr Kikine, who is based in the Durban office of SAAWU, was first brought to court with two other senior SAAWU officials in Johannesburg on June 28 (1982) after being held in detention without trial for eight months.
He was detained on November 27 1981 in Durban – two days after he played a leading role in organising the funeral of Durban political trials lawyer, Griffith Mxenge, who was brutally slain by people believed to be members of the apartheid security police.
Mr Kikine, who is a popular personality in the black community in Durban, was first held under the General Laws Amendment Act which allows the authorities to detain a person incommunicado for 14 days. He was later held under Section 6 of the Terrorism Act.

              (The writer, Subry Govender, with Mr Sam Kikine in November 2018)

At the same time the president of SAAWU, Mr Thozamile Gqueta, was also admitted for psychiatric treatment at a Johannesburg hospital. Sometime after Mr Gqueta’s discharge from hospital, Mr Kikine was taken to Johannesburg where on June 28 1982 he was charged with Mr Gqweta and another senior official, Mr Sisa Njikelane, in connection with charges under the Terrorism Act.
Details of their charges were not disclosed by the authorities.
Mr Kikine was told that he would be transferred to Durban for trial while his colleagues would be transferred to Grahamstown. But 30 minutes later he was taken back to court and told that the charges against him had been withdrawn.
However, he was immediately re-detained and taken to Durban under police escort.

              CHARGED WITH TERRORISM

On June 29 (1982) he appeared in a Durban magistrates’ court and told that he was facing charges in connection with the Terrorism Act but no specific charges were preferred against him.
He was taken into security police custody once again and the authorities stated that he was being held under a section of the Internal Security Act that did allow for bail.
But his lawyers made a successful bail application and on July 13 he was released on R500 bail.
Since then he has appeared twice in court but no specific charges were put to him.
Because Mr Kikine is facing trial, he declined to grant the Press Trust of South Africa an interview for fear of breaking the sub-judice rule.

"DON'T YOU KNOW, IT'S THE SECURITY POLICE IN CAPE TOWN"

His record so far, however, shows that he, like his fellow SAAWU officials, has been a constant victim of harassment and psychological intimidation. Late in 1981, about twelve days before he was detained, he claimed that his telephone was being tampered with almost daily and that his offices had been broken into.
During one of his telephone calls, a third person coughed on the phone and when Mr Kikine asked who was there, a man replied:
“Don’t you know Sam? This is the security police, Cape Town.”
And on another occasion, someone telephoned him and said that there was a bomb in the building his union occupied in Durban’s Victoria Street (now Bertha Mkhize).
Not unexpectedly , the authorities and the security police denied any knowledge of the telephone interference and said they were not responsible. Many observers in South Africa are not surprised at Mr Kikine’s harassment because “intimidation and harassment” is part of the life of all people engaged in the struggles for a just society in South Africa.
But, they are, however, baffled at the actions which the authorities have brought against him.

One observer said that normally when a person was charged under the Terrorism Act, he was held in solitary confinement until the end of the trial.

“But in Mr Kikine’s case it seems the authorities have nothing against him and they are just trying to make his life intolerable,” said the observer. Ends – Press Trust of SA Third World News Agency  August 13 1982