NORMAN MIDDLETON - RECALLING HIS STRUGGLES FOR A NON-RACIAL AND DEMOCRATIC SOUTH AFRICA

 

                                  

 

Just over a month ago, on July 2 2022, it was seven years since the passing of one of the strongest anti-apartheid sports administrators in South Africa. Mr Norman Middleton died at the age of 94 at his residence in Cape Town. Mr Middleton worked with sports leaders of the calibre of Mr Hassan Howa, Mr Morgan Naidoo, Mr M N Pather, Mr R K Naidoo, Mr Cassim Bassa, and scores of other anti-apartheid leaders in isolating apartheid sport prior to the dawn of freedom in 1994.

At the time of his passing in 2015, I wrote a lengthy and comprehensive article about Middleton’s contributions to the non-racial struggle despite the harassment, intimidation and denial of passport by the former apartheid regime.

I want to re-publish this article to recall the struggles for a non-racial and democratic South Africa. Sadly, the contributions and values and principles of leaders of the calibre of Mr Middleton have been thrown aside for a new form of racism in our country.

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF ANTI-APARTHEID LEADER, NORMAN MIDDLETON, IN THE STRUGGLES FOR A NON-RACIAL AND DEMOCRATIC SOUTH AFRICA

   

By Marimuthu Subramoney

(aka Subry Govender) (July 8 2015)

 

"I will not be blackmailed into being granted a passport because I am fighting for non-racial sport and a free and democratic South Africa."

This was the feature that characterised the life of prominent anti-apartheid sports and political leader, Mr Norman Middleton, who passed away last Thursday, July 2, in Cape Town at the age of 94.

His funeral took place on Saturday, July 11 in Pietermaritzburg where he spent most of his teenage and adult life fighting the evils of apartheid in all sectors of life.

He was one of the strongest anti-apartheid leaders who kept alive the struggles for a free and non-racial society along with hundreds of other activists during the dark days of apartheid in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and until the dawn of the country's freedom in 1994.

I came into contact with Mr Middleton in the late 1960s when he was involved in the trade union movement and in non-racial soccer. At this time, I was a free-lance reporter for the Daily News, Durban edition of the old Golden City Post, the Mercury and the Sunday Tribune.

Our friendship grew stronger when I joined the Daily News as a full-time reporter in April 1973. At this time Middleton was also the president of the non-racial South African Soccer Federation and the non-racial South African Council of Sport (SACOS), which campaigned for the isolation of apartheid sport internationally.

Mr Middleton was also involved with the Labour Party, which under the leadership of Mr Sonny Leon and Alan Hendrickse, used the system to promote a non-racial and democratic South Africa for all South Africans.

Paging through my Daily News scrap books, I was amazed at the militant and uncompromising stance that Mr Middleton had adopted against the apartheid regime and the apartheid society in general despite the oppression and harassment at that time.

He took a firm stance against the passport "blackmail" in June 1974 when he was invited to address the world football body, FIFA, in Frankfurt in Germany. He and his fellow leaders in the SASF had earlier made representations to FIFA to expel the all-white Football Association of South Africa (FASA).

Mr Middleton was given a mandate by the SASF and SACOS to inform the FIFA meeting on June 11 1974 as to why FASA should be expelled.

He had applied for his passport in January 1974. But after being kept waiting for five months, the then Minister of Interior, Dr Connie Mulder, told Mr Middleton that he would only consider granting him a passport if he declared in writing that he would not do anything to deprive South African sportsmen and women from participating in international sport.

Mr Middleton's response was uncompromising when I spoke to him in an interview on June 3 1974. In an article under the headline: "Middleton says NO to passport 'blackmail'" in the Daily News on the same day, Mr Middleton was quoted as saying:

"I will never agree to such an undertaking. I made my application as an ordinary South African and as such should be given one.

"As far as I am aware no other person has been asked to make such an undertaking before."

As expected Dr Mulder refused to change his stance and Mr Middleton was denied the right to travel overseas.

 

Two years later Mr Middleton was again invited by FIFA to attend its congress in Montreal in Canada in July 1976. Once again the same Interior Minister, Dr Mulder, re-iterated his position that he would only grant Mr Middleton a passport if he gave a written undertaking not to harm South African sportsmen and women.

In a report under the headline, "Middleton refusal on passport" on May 13 1976, the dynamic Middleton was as robust as ever. He was quoted as saying:

"I want all South African sportsmen and women to enjoy international competition and not only the white sportsmen and women.

"I would not defend a system where South African sportsmen and women of colour are discriminated against at all levels of society.

"If I ever visit overseas countries I would tell them nothing but the truth as it exists in South Africa instead of the false propoganda that is being promoted overseas in regards to the sports policy of the country.

"If telling the truth is going to jeopardise the position of white sportsmen and women, then I believe this should be done - the sooner the better."

In October 1974 when India refused to meet South Africa in the Davis Cup final, Middleton came out in full support of the move and India's call for South Africa's expulsion from world tennis.

I spoke to him and we published his views in the Daily News on October 31 1974 under the headline: "India's refusal is a victory, says Middleton".

He was quoted as follows: "The ball is definitely in South Africa's court now. The longer the country takes to do away with discrimination in sport, the more we will suffer and be expelled from world sport.

"The black sportsmen and women have been pleading for change for far too long. We are now not going to plead but demand equal opportunities."

He went onto say:"The tennis world is fully aware that South Africa's participation in the Davis Cup has led to many problems. I am sure that India is doing the right thing by calling for South Africa's expulsion.

"South Africa does not presently enjoy the sympathy of world opinion and the black sportsmen in the country.

"The country must mend its ways if all sportsmen are to be reinstated in the world sporting arena."

And when the Australian Derrick Robins had organised a rebel tour to South Africa to break the isolation of the country in international cricket, Mr Middleton called on two of the black international cricketers in the team not to join the rebel tour.

The cricketers he appealed to were the former Pakistan test cricketer, Younis Ahmed, and the West Indian, John Shepherd.

The rebel tour was organised by Robins in the wake of the cancellation of England tour to South Africa in 1970 after the then Prime Minister, John Vorster, refused to allow former South African cricketer, Basil D'Oliviera, to accompany the English team.

 

We published his comments in an article under the headline: "Don't tour South Africa, Middleton tells Black cricketers" on October 9 1973.

He was quoted as saying: "We have told them they will be playing against segregated teams and before segregated spectators.

"We have also told them the South African Cricket Board of Control (non-racial) will have nothing to do with the tour.

"We told them they would be cutting across the ultimatum given by the MCC to South Africa that cricket relations between the two countries (England and South Africa) would only be resumed once non-racial cricket was started in the country."

Even as a leader of the Labour Party he had repeatedly told this correspondent that they were only participating in the then Coloured Representative Council(CRC) not to make it work but to destroy it. (The apartheid regime was using the CRC, the bantustans, the urban 'bantu' councils and the South African Indian Council(SAIC) at this time to deny full citizenship rights to all South Africans.)

 

This was clearly seen in an article under the headline: "We'll wreck 'useless' CRC, says Middleton" that the Daily News published on September 10 1976. It was at a time when school children all over the country were on the warpath against inferior and unequal education following the June 1976 uprisings by pupils in Soweto.

He was quoted as saying: "We have always maintained that the CRC is a useless institution and that we will carry out the people's mandate to wreck the council.

"One of our tactics to destroy the council is to take over the executive positions and use them according to our terms.

"The children have shown us the way and it is now more than ever that we must stand fully behind them."

Mr Middleton re-iterated his very strong anti-apartheid attitude when he addressed mass meetings all over the country over the next few years.

We at the Daily News reported on a meeting that he addressed at the Wentworth Community Hall in south Durban on June 7 1977. In an article under the headline: "Middleton says free detained leaders" on the following day, he was quoted as saying:

"The future of our country will never be determined without the participation of imprisoned, detained, banned and those leaders in exile. Unless the leaders on Robben Island and outside are allowed to take their rightful place in shaping the future there will be no peace in the country."

Mr Middleton also spoke out against the moves by the apartheid regime at that time to introduce the Newspaper Bill in order to control the print media.

This was highlighted in a report the Daily News published under the headline, "Newspaper bill will deprive us of the truth, says Middleton", on March 17 1977.

He was quoted as saying: "If this Bill goes through there will be absolutely no difference in the democracy of the Iron countries and South Africa.

"The terms of the proposed Press Bill are so wide and the details are so deliberately vague that newspaper editors will be forced to act within abominable constraints.

"The irony of it all is that this bill is being introduced in the name of freedom of the Press. I suppose it is the freedom of the Press to report what the government thinks fit and worthwhile."

While sticking to his hardline stance in politics and sport, Mr Middleton at the same time played an active role in the trade union movement as the Natal Organiser of the Engineering Industrial Workers Union, which was an affiliate of the Trade Union Council of South Africa (TUCSA). But his attempts to help organise African workers at the request of a prominent trade union leader at that time, Mr Barney Dladla, in the early 1970s led to him being dismissed by the Engineering Union.

He was given the boot because he allowed an African trade union temporary use of his union's offices in Pietermaritzburg. It was at a time when apartheid segregation was at its height but Mr Middleton chose not to toe the line.

In January 1981, after this correspondent was banned and house-arrested for three years, a colleague of mine from Germany visited me in Durban. We made arrangements to travel to Pietermaritzburg to meet various anti-apartheid activists, including Mr Middleton. I informed Mr Middleton that we will meet him at his office at 8:30am but couldn't make it on time as we had changed our itinerary to meet someone else at that time.

We called at Mr Middleton's office after lunch.

"Lucky you did not come in the morning, Subry. The security police were waiting for you here and was going to arrest you for breaking your banning orders."

It seemed clear that Mr Middleton's phones had been tapped and the security police was keeping a watch on him.

Before he became an active trade unionist and anti-apartheid sports and politican proponent, Mr Middleton, who was born in Sophiatown in Johannesburg in January 1921, started life as a shoe factory worker in Pietermaritzburg.

He was also s soldier during World War 11 in North Africa and Italy and was wounded by shrapnel in an air raid.

Mr Middleton only stepped aside as a prominent spokesperson on anti-apartheid sports and politics after the ANC and other organisations were unbanned and after Nelson Mandela was released in February 1990.

He joined the IFP and served as an MP in Cape Town after 1994.

(Non-racial sports administrators who attended his funeral service in Pietermaritzburg on July 11 2015)

His contributions towards the liberation struggles are a reminder of the kind of sacrifices made by anti-apartheid activists inside the country during the repressive years of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

It's a sad commentary that the new regime had not given Mr Middleton any recoginition whatsoever after the advent of our new non-racial democracy. This is tragic and one just hopes that the right thing will be done now - even when he is no longer with us.  ends - ms/dbn