MEWALALL RAMGOBIN – RADIO DOCUMENTARY OCTOBER 2008

(Mewa Ramgobin leading a protest march against the tri-cameral apartheid institutions outside the Durban City Hall in the 1980s) RICH HISTORY RADIO DOCUMENTARY SERIES INTRODUCTION: In 2008 and 2009 I had the privilege of interviewing a number struggle stalwarts and activists about their contributions and sacrifices for the freedom that we attained in April 1994. This was at a time when many former activists and many others began to question the erosion that was taking place in the governance of the country. The people were mainly concerned about the rate of corruption that was taking root and the degeneration of the health and educational sectors. The people were also questioning the rate of the runaway violent crime and asking: “Is this what we have sacrificed and fought for?”. Some of the leaders and activists I had spoken to were: Bishop Rubin Philip, Prof Jerry Coovadia, Paul Devadas David, Radhakrishna Roy Padaychie, Mewalall Ramgobin, Siva Naidoo, Billy Nair, and Kay Moonsamy. I also compiled radio documentaries on the lives of Sam Moodley, Hanef Bhamjee, R D Naidoo, Hester Joseph, Ismail IC Meer, Appiah Saravanan Chetty, Sunny Singh and hundreds of other political, social, cultural and community leaders. In my continuing Rich History series, I bring you the views of Mewalall Ramgobin, who played a leading role in the early 1970s in the revival of the Natal Indian Congress. The revived NIC played a major role in the struggles for liberation in the absence of the ANC and other progressive organisations that were banned by the former apartheid regime. But in 1994, when South Africans were preparing for the country’s first democratic elections, the NIC was forced to shut shop after an agreement was reached that the ANC would represent and promote the aspirations of all South Africans. Ramgobin, who died at the age of 84 on Monday, Oct 17 2016, was one of the NIC leaders who supported the move for the people to throw their lot with the ANC. Beside the revival of the NIC, Ramgobin was best known for initiating the campaigns for the release of Nelson Mandela and other political leaders in 1971, the promotion of the values and principles of Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhi’s Phoenix Settlement Trust, north of Durban; the establishment of the UDF in August 1983, the promotion of the struggles to international levels by occupying the British Consulate for several months in 1983, isolating apartheid opportunists and for playing a major role during the negotiations process from the early 1990s to 1994 when the new democratic order was established. For his involvement in the struggles, Ramgobin was hounded, harassed, targeted with a parcel bomb, and banned and house-arrested for nearly 20 years from 1970 to 1990. He was also detained and charged with High Treason in 1985. Ramgobin became a member of parliament for the ANC in 1994 and occupied this position until his retirement in 2009. I compiled this radio documentary after talking to Ramgobin about the concerns of many people in October 2008.