COOLIE JOURNALIST - AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF VETERAN STRUGGLE JOURNALIST, MARIMUTSUBRAMONEY- (aka SUBRY GOVENDER)

 

COOLIE

JOURNALIST

 

 

 

 

 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF VETERAN STRUGGLE JOURNALIST, MARIMUTSUBRAMONEY-

(aka SUBRY GOVENDER)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Security policemen of the notorious apartheid regime search Subry Govender’s desk at the Daily News in the mid-1970s. The Daily News was situated in the former Field Street in central Durban at that time.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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(Fawzia Moodley working in the office of Press Trust of SA News Agency in the 1980s.)

 

FOREWORD: 1

By Fawzia Moodley

Former colleague who worked with Subry Govender at the Press Trust of SA News Agency

South Africa’s struggle history is replete with stories of ordinary people who fought extraordinary struggles in a bid to overthrow the shackles of racial subjugation under Apartheid.

One such person is Marimuthu Subramoney (aka Subry Govender), an unsung hero from a working- class family in Ottawa/Verulam on the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal, whose political consciousness

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was awoken by his personal experience of Apartheid.

A descendant of indentured labourers who were recruited from India by the British colonialists to work in the then Natal Colony’s sugar cane fields, Subry carried the tenacious gene of his forebears, who through sheer determination rose out of the near slave conditions under which they had to survive in the strange new land they found themselves.

It was this grit that allowed him to fight the injustices of Apartheid which so-called non-white people – native African, those of Indian origin and mixed heritage (coloured) people – were subjected to.

From humble beginnings, he rose to become a prominent journalist who belongs to a pantheon of fearless anti-apartheid journos like Zwelakhe Sisulu, Mthata Tsedu, Rashid Seria, Juby Mayet, Percy Qoboza and Aggrey Klaaste, who used the pen to buck the system of racial oppression.

For this they paid a heavy price with detentions and bannings, and were prevented from earning a living through their craft. They were regularly harassed by the dreaded security branch (SB) police who raided their homes in the middle of the

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night, disrupting family lives and traumatising elderly parents and young children.

The title ‘Coolie’ is a reference to the derogatory term used by the white bosses to refer to the indentured labourers brought from India to toil on the sugar farms of the then Natal Colony. It is an insulting term akin to the ‘K’ word used to refer to African people. For that was what Subry was in the eyes of the white government that detained, banned and harassed him – an upstart Coolie journalist bent on exposing the cruelty that lay behind the veneer of a civilised system of government.

Yet Subry, like all the other ordinary people who dared to challenge the mighty Apartheid machinery, proved more than a match for the white National Party government. With dogged determination he ensured that the truth about Apartheid was broadcast not only to South Africans but also to the international community. His news reports were carried as far afield as India, Germany, Netherlands, France, Scotland, the United States, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.  Far from silencing him, the Apartheid government ended up courting international condemnation because Subry’s

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banning order and the Government’s vengeful refusal to grant him a passport to take up offers of scholarships, galvanised Amnesty International, the churches and the trade union movement against Apartheid.

Living in a post-apartheid South Africa where many of our youth are ignorant of the blood, sweat and tears of the hundreds of thousands of people who contributed to the liberation of this country, “Coolie Journalist”, makes an important contribution to our struggle history.

Simply told, it is a book that every school child should have access to, lest we forget that we owe our freedom to people of all races, classes and creeds. We all know of the role of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Albertina Sisulu and Winnie Mandela in fighting Apartheid. Now we need to learn about the Subry Govenders’ of this country who played an equally important role by chipping away patiently at the Apartheid monolith until it was eventually destroyed.

Fawzia Moodley – September 2023

 

 

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(R. Brijlall, leading editor and journalist, who worked in the 1970s and 1980s as a reporter for the Post Newspaper. In the background are Deven Moodley and I A Khan – seated.)

 

FOREWORD: 2

By Brijlall Ramguthee

JOURNALISM is not for the faint-hearted.  The trials, tribulations, and challenges that one faces in this so-called noble profession, is, at best, daunting.  No, you are unlikely to end up wealthy, unless, of course, you have those winning Powerball or Lotto numbers. However, there’s

 

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another kind of richness that you will be endowed with – that of personal, inner satisfaction of being a messenger or purveyor of information that benefits the community. And for being a crusader for freedom, and justice, never mind that you are labelled a ‘Media Terrorist’ in the process.

Marimuthu Subramoney, aka Subry Govender, Soobs, or Sadha, has encapsulated and chronicled his life and times in this autobiography, “Coolie Journalist”. The book traces his formative years in Ottawa near Verulam, (where he occasionally worked in a sugarcane field), to climbing the rungs of his journalism ladder, in a career spanning over 50 plus years. And no, he has not yet put away his pen, not just yet, for like others in his field, the ink runs deep in his veins.

But it has been no easy ride for this avid golfer, who faced Security Police harassment, detention, banning restrictions, the denial of a passport, and the tragic loss of his son, three-month-old Vishen, whom Subry could not take for urgent medical treatment due to being confined to his Verulam, North Coast, home during certain hours, in terms of his banning order, under the Suppression of Communism Act, leaving his wife Thyna and helpful neighbours to act. 

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For Subry, though, his has been an eventful journey in many respects. From being a clerk in an insurance company, to being a freelance and later full-time journalist, to being a radio correspondent, to a stint as an SABC employee, and running a local newspaper, and being a correspondent for overseas print and electronic media outlets, he has seen it all.

All of these remarkable achievements are succinctly captured in detail in the ‘Coolie Journalist’, so read on, to get your fill on how and why the author chose this title for his book. Caution: This is an ‘incisive read’ with many anecdotes, so take your time because you will discover that Mr Marimuthu Subramoney did find, like the iconic Nelson Mandela, had said that “after climbing a great hill, one finds that there are many more hills to climb.”

BRIJLALL RAMGUTHEE

(Former Editor of POST NEWSPAPER and colleague of Subry Govender)

 

 

 

 

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FOREWORD: 3

By Ravi Govender

When I joined SABC radio, circa. 2006, the name Subry Govender was already a legendary one. Over the following years I was not blessed to work closely with him personally. But I certainly knew of him.

However, it is only when I was editing this publication that I learned why "legendary" is a worthy adjective to describe Govender.

He served time in the trenches - literally and symbolically. His tale is one of courage, pathos, and truth. His life took a beating from many angles and he is still standing...testament of resilience, bravery and honour. I don't use these words

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loosely. Immerse yourself in this, his life story and draw your own conclusion.

My view is that this publication is essential reading and should take its rightful place among South African great writings. Peek into Subry's world...it is a fascinating one and not easily forgettable.

Ravi Govender

(author, former radio presenter and film producer in training.)

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

i).   Forewords by Fawzia Moodley, Brijlall Ramguthee and Ravi Govender.

ii).  Introduction

iii). “Coolie Journalist”

iv). Banning

v).  Natural Entry into Journalism

vi). “Why are you causing problems in our office”

vii). Joined Daily News on a full-time basis in early 1973

viii). Social and Political awareness started while still at primary school in Ottawa

ix).  “Wipe your shoes with the Republic flag”.

 

 

 

 

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x).  Coolie field workers.

xi). Journalists pay the price for media freedom.

xii). Solidarity support by SACC and international organisations.

xiii). Abhorrent nature of banning orders.

xiv). “Bannings, I would not wish on P W Botha.”

xv). Denial of passport.

xvi). Passport issued in error withdrawn

xvii). “Do not bother again”, “Editor told as passport is refused”.

xviii). “Subramoney finally gets his passport”.

xix). Relationship of Trust with activists

xx). Interview with Ahmed Kathrada after his release in 1989

xxi). Interview with Nelson Mandela in June 1990

xxii). Interview with Professor Fatima Meer.

Xxii1. Conclusion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“For me, Journalism is not an 8 to 5 job. It is a profession to make a difference for the better in the lives of the people.” - Subry Govender

 

INTRODUCTION

 

 

(Subry Govender when heading the Press Trust of SA News Agency at his offices in Durban in the 1980s.)

 

I entered the field of journalism in the late 1960s at a time when I became an angry young man following the racial discrimination I had experienced after I matriculated in 1965. I wanted to use journalism to highlight the suffering of the

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people and to promote freedom and democracy - that we euphemistically enjoy today.

Let me give you just one example.

One fine day in my early teens I boarded a train from my home village of Ottawa, on the North Coast in the then Natal province in South Africa, to

Durban, now known as eThekwini, the main city in our province.

When the train arrived at the Durban Central Station – it stopped at platform eleven. One had to ascend a bridge to get to the entrance of the station. The only problem was that the bridge was divided into two sections - one for people, referred to as whites, and the other for those like me, described at that time as "non-whites".

The bridge for "whites" took you straight to the entrance of the station, while the "non-white" section took you to the far end of the station.

I was stumped for a while and gave it some thought. I figured that since I had been using the "non-white" section of the bridge without question for some time, I would, this time, use the "white" bridge – irrespective of the consequences.

I told my accompanying fellow passengers that I was going to defy the segregation laws and began to climb the "white" section of the bridge. As I

arrived at the end of the bridge, a white commuter

confronted me. 

"Hey coolie, don't you know that this bridge is for

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whites only?"

I responded by saying that it did not make any

sense to me that there should be one bridge for whites and a separate one for so-called "non-whites".

He retorted: "You cheeky coolie, come with me."

He grabbed me by my shoulders and escorted me to the Railway Police station offices in the station building.

“This cheeky coolie used the white bridge, charge him", he told an African policeman who was at the counter.

The policeman looked at me and then politely told me that I should take a seat. He then told the white person that I would be attended to and that he should leave.

After the white commuter had left, the policeman called me a few minutes later and said:

"Young man I cannot charge you. You can leave."

I noticed that the African policeman was embarrassed that he was in such an awkward position where he had to implement racist laws.

That incident was an eye-opener for me and there and then I decided that I had to do something to highlight what I termed “racist, discriminatory”

laws. I thus entered the field of journalism as it was for me an ideal platform to channel my aspirations.

 

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"Hey look at what this Coolie journalist has been scribbling on the wall! You are wasting your time. We are not going to let that terrorist out of prison. He will rot in jail."

   

    “COOLIE JOURNALIST”

 

It was around 3am in the morning on a weekday in the fourth week of May 1980. I heard frantic knocks on our door. It was my mother. Speaking in our Tamil mother tongue, she said: "Sadha, rende vela karagango inga irakarango. Una pakanoma."

(Translated: “Sadha (that's my cultural name) two white men are here. They say they want to see you.")

My wife, Thyna, and our son, Kennedy Pregarsen, and daughter, Seshini, and I, used to occupy at that time the outbuilding at number 30 Mimosa Road, Lotusville, Verulam - just north of Durban.

My mother, Salatchie, my father, Subramoney Munien, and my brothers - Dhavanathan (Nanda), Gonaseelan (Sydney), and Gangadharan (Nelson) and sisters - Kistamma (Violet) and Natchathramah (Childie) - used to occupy the main building.

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My eldest sister, Mariamah (Ambie), was married at this time and she was staying in the area of

Phoenix - about 15km south of where we were residing.

Clearly in a sleepy mood, I opened the door to find two white security policemen with awkward smiles on their faces. I recognised one of them as

Sergeant De Beer. He was one of the security policemen who questioned my position when I worked at the Daily News from the early 1970s to late 1980. I saw him questioning one of my Daily News colleagues outside the Daily News building at the former Field Street in the city of Durban. My colleague informed me later that De Beer had questioned him about my work at the Daily News.

On this occasion at my home in Lotusville, Verulam, he looked at me and with a quirky smile and said:

"Mr Subramoney, we have come to search your house and for you to accompany us back to the office."

At the same time, members of the security police were conducting similar raids at the homes of my colleagues and officials of the Media Workers Association of South Africa (MWASA) in the cities and towns of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Bloemfontein and other parts of the country. In addition to us as

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journalists, the security police also raided the

homes of political activists, such as Vijay Ramluckan, who became one of Nelson Mandela’s doctors after his release in 1990, and Yunus Shaik, brother of Moe Shaik,  who became an ambassador in the new South Africa.

I informed De Beer that my family members were asleep and their visit was inappropriate. Their unannounced visit at such an unearthly early hour was an intrusion and would be disturbing my family. De Beer did not seem to care and he and his colleague just pushed their way in.

"Where are all the communist books you keep?", De Beer and his colleague asked in gruff voices.

"I don't know about communist books but here are all my files and literature," I responded.

I did have some communist literature but this was stored away in the ceiling of the house. I used to receive material from the banned Communist Party of South Africa despite me not being a member. I used to read the booklets and then store them in the ceiling.

"We want you around when we search your files and books," they said.

So, I watched them go through my files with a “fine tooth comb" and read each-and-every letter in one of the files.

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Suddenly they burst out laughing and one of them said: "Here's an interesting letter."

It was a letter I had written sometime in the late 1960s to the then Prime Minister of India, Mrs Indira Gandhi.

I was still a "greenhorn" at that time. I was just

learning about the political situation, the world and the land of my ancestors - India. I did not know what went through my head that on one fine day I sat at my typewriter and penned a letter to Mrs Gandhi. I told her about the oppression of the people of colour in South Africa and asked her whether India was doing anything about it.

Mrs Gandhi knew something about South Africa. As a teenager she stayed a few days in Durban while enroute from London to India. She was the guest of members and officials of the progressive and influential Natal Indian Congress, a powerful ally of the African National Congress (ANC) during the dark days of the struggle against white minority rule and domination in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. I was informed that two of the people she had met were struggle stalwarts, Mr Ismail Meer, who was a member and official of the Natal Indian Congress, and his wife, Professor Fatima Meer, who was a sociologist, author and social activist at that time.

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The letter to Mrs Gandhi read: "Dear Mrs Gandhi. I am a South African whose forefathers and mothers had come down from India to the country since the 1860s to work as indentured labourers on the sugar cane plantations of the former Natal Colony.

"Our people have made great strides despite

decades of slavery, colonial rule and apartheid oppression.

"Leaders of our community such as Dr Yusuf Dadoo, Dr Monty Naicker, Dr Kesaval Goonum, George Singh, J N Singh, Ismail Meer, Fatima Meer, Billy Nair, Mac Maharaj, Sonny Singh and thousands of others have made enormous contributions and sacrifices in the struggles against White minority rule and oppression.

“The situation is now deteriorating and I would like to know whether the Government of India will be doing anything to promote our liberation."

I did not post that letter. But I did not tell the security policemen that. I wanted them to believe that I had really sent that letter to Mrs Gandhi.

After about an hour of searching through my files, the two security policemen put everything they wanted together in a pile and then told my wife:

"You are not going to see your husband for some time. He would need some clothes."

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They did not clean up the mess they caused through their invasion and search. My wife, Thyna, had to clean up after I was taken away.

While they were conducting their search, my son, Kennedy Pregarsen, who was six years old and daughter, Seshini, who was three years old, woke

up and they were wondering what these strange white men were doing in our home.

It was around 6am when De Beer and his colleague said they were finished and I should join them.

As I was walking with the security policemen, I could see my son, Kennedy Pregarsen, watching with concern in his eyes and my wife, really worried. When my son was born, I was looking for a name, in addition to a Tamil cultural name, for him. I recalled the assassination of John F. Kennedy two decades earlier when our family stayed in the neighbouring rural village of Ottawa. I was studying for my matriculation examinations at this time when I heard over the radio that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. I considered Kennedy to be a great liberal who introduced reform measures to uplift the lives of the discriminated African-American people.

That is how my son got the name Kennedy.  From an early age he became aware of our struggles and punching his right fist into the air and shouting

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"Amandla Awethu" (Power to the People) became a norm for him.

I told my wife not to worry and to telephone my news editor, Mr David James, at the Daily News.

My mother and my younger brothers and sisters were also watching closely.

 

(An article published by the Daily News after I was detained in May 1980.)

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In the car, the two security policemen told me that I was involved with communists and that I was in big trouble.

De Beer said: "Mr Subramoney, you have a young

family, why are you involving yourself with communists? You are associating yourself with terrorists. You are nothing more than a Coolie journalist and we will make your life very difficult."

I just kept silent. I was too shocked.

This was not the first time that I had come into

contact with the security police at close range.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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(Daily News article on October 19 1977 about the raids at the homes of journalists and activists throughout the country.)

 

 

 

 

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On October 19 1977 when the South African Government carried out one of the most oppressive actions against the media by banning the Union of Black Journalists (UBJ) and 18 other anti-apartheid and anti-regime organisations, the security police also visited my home in Verulam in the early hours of that fateful day. The security police also conducted similar raids at the home of my then colleague at the Daily News, Mr Dennis Pather, and at the homes and offices of my colleagues of the UBJ in Johannesburg, East London, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and other major centres of the country. 

Then about two years later, on June 3 1979, two “Indian-origin” members of the security police called at our home in Verulam and questioned me about the visit to South Africa by a journalist from Norway, Mr Olie Ericksen.

 

                                     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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(Daily News published a report on June 4 1979 about security police visiting my home in Verulam and questioning me about the visit of a Norwegian journalist, Olie Ericksen.)

 

 

 

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Mr Ericksen was on a fact-finding mission for the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and I hosted him in Durban.

The security policemen questioned me for about one-and-half hours on Mr Ericksen’s trip and about the Writers Association of South Africa (WASA), which we, black journalists, had established after the Union of Black Journalists (UBJ) was banned by the apartheid regime on 19 October 1977. One of the security policemen was a Major Benjamin. He was well known to be a notorious security police officer who followed and pursued with passion most of the activists at that time. Although being a person of Indian-origin, he failed to understand the struggles for a non-racial and free South Africa. He was more interested in serving the “white baas”.

But after 1994 when the ANC was elected to power and Nelson Mandela was elected president, Major Benjamin became a member of the ANC.

There were many “turncoats” like Major Benjamin in the political and business world who also changed their costumes and colours and suddenly became staunch supporters of “liberty and freedom”.

After the visit of Benjamin and his colleague, the only other time the security police showed extra

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interest in my work as a journalist was when I was in my second year as a full-time staffer at the Daily News in 1975.

Some of the members of the security police questioned a white colleague about me. They wanted to know: “who is this Coolie journalist working in your office?”.

They were apparently interested in me because of my regular and comprehensive reports on black trade unions and about the struggles of anti-apartheid sports organisations and their leaders. 

On this particular day at the end of May 1980, De Beer and his colleague, after taking me into custody, drove straight to the offices of the Daily News at 85 Field Street (now Joe Slovo Street) in the centre of Durban. We took the lift to the second floor where our newsroom was located.

Without speaking to anyone or obtaining permission they just asked me to point out my desk. My colleagues looked on in shock and dismay. At that time members of the Security Branch of the police in South Africa were notorious for their brutality and no one, not even white citizens, dared to square up against them.

De Beer and his colleague began to search my desk and the drawers. They collected a pile of stories that I had written and put them together to

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be taken away.

Unknown to me or the security policemen, one of the Daily News photographers, Robert D'avice, snapped away at the action of the security branch policemen. This photograph was given to me after I was released from solitary detention.

(Security policemen searching my desk at the Daily News in Field Street - now Joe Slovo Street - in Durban in May 1980.)

 

The security policemen, thereafter, drove me to the Brighton Beach police station, near the Bluff on the outskirts of the city of Durban. Here they spoke to a policeman on duty and then locked me in a cell. They did not say anything. They just left.

 

 

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I was left to myself. All kinds of emotions ran through me. But in the end, I was sure that I did not commit any crime and the security policemen were just "fishing".

At about 9pm that evening, Sgt De Beer and two other security policemen turned up at the police station. 

"Mr Subramoney, we have come to take you to our office."

They drove me to their security police headquarters in Fisher Street (now Masobiya Mdluli Street) in Durban. Here I was given a notebook and told to write down my personal history - where I was born?, who were my parents?, which schools I went to?, which organisations I belonged to?, and where I worked?.

After I finished writing what they wanted, they began to fire questions at me about my work:  why was I covering the trade union movement? why was I only concerned about black politics? and about non-racial sport?

"You. You are playing with fire. The white man has developed this country and Coolies like you think we are just going to hand it over to the 'k…..s' (a derogatory term used by the white man at that time to describe black African people)," one of the security policemen shouted at me.

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It was around midnight when they took me back to the police cells at Brighton Beach.

The next day, my first visitors were my cousin, Lutchmee, and her husband, Benny Reddy, who lived in the nearby township of Merebank.

(My cousin, Mrs Lutchmee Reddy, and her husband, Benny Reddy, who visisted me at the Bluff Police Station where I was detained in June 1980.)

 

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My cousin was the second daughter of my mother’s eldest sister, Baigium. As a family we were very close. When I was a little boy, I used to visit their home in the “tin town” area of Merebank on a regular basis during the school holidays. I also, during my school holidays, travelled to Merebank by train and bus to sell the guava fruit to the residents. I collected the guavas on Friday afternoons from trees near the Ottawa river. I then used to, on a Saturday, travel by train to Durban and from there catch a bus to Merebank from the Warwick Avenue bus rank.

After we got married in February 1973, my wife, Thyna, and I stayed in an outbuilding at my cousin’s new home in Merebank. Early in the 1970s my cousin, her elder brother, Soobiah, and their families moved into a council house at 16 Nagpur Place, Merebank. 

My wife had informed them earlier that I was being held at the Brighton Beach Police Station nearby and they should try to visit me.

The white policeman in charge knocked on the cell gate and said: "You have some visitors. You are not allowed any visitors but I am going to allow them to see you."

 

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I was surprised to see my cousin and brother-in-law. They brought me some lunch, for which I was very grateful.

Before I could greet them, my cousin spoke with a lot of concern:

"Why are you getting into all this trouble? You are causing a lot of worries for everyone.

"You have a good job. Your wife and children are very young. Why do you have to get into trouble with the white man?", she asked with a great deal of anxiety in her voice.

I told my cousin and brother-in-law not to worry.

"I will be okay," I told them. But they were not too happy. They departed after giving me these words of advice: "Please be careful."

I went back to the cell and began to ponder about life in general. Why was I here? How long am I going to be here? What are they going to do to me?

I found a pen on the floor and took to the wall. I began to write: "Release Nelson Mandela and all your problems will be over."

I wrote this on almost every available space on the wall to pass my time.

Later that evening when the security branch policemen came for me again, one of them blurted:

 

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"Hey look at what this Coolie journalist has been scribbling on the wall!"

"You are wasting your time. We are not going to let that terrorist out of prison. He will rot in jail," said the other security policeman.

"We have come to take you to our office."

They drove along the Brighton Beach road, through the Bluff and along the main road to the city. The lights and the moving cars took my thoughts away from the situation I found myself in. I noticed some people walking along the roads - the working-class people who did not know what the security policemen in the country were up to.

At the security police headquarters, there were four security policemen seated around a table.

"Tell us what are you guys up to?", asked one of them.

"I see your people are making a lot of noise", said another. I did not know what he was talking about but I learnt later that our Daily News editor, Mr John O'Mally, had made representations to higher authority about my detention and demanded that I be charged or released immediately.

 

 

 

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I knew that the security policemen did not have anything against me. After accusing me of being a “terrorist”, “communist” and warning me that I should watch my steps, they drove me back to the Brighton Beach police station at about 11pm.

My news editor, Mr David James, insisted that I was not involved in anything illegal and reiterated that I should either be charged or released.

It was the same David James who in June 1976 wanted to know where I had been on June 16 when the school children of Soweto had protested against the imposition of the Afrikaans language as a medium of instruction in African schools. I was away on holiday at that time but he jokingly said:

"Hey Subry, you have been up to your tricks in Soweto!."

I knew he was just trying to “pull my leg” and he did not mean anything.

I did not tell my news editor that I had in fact travelled to Soweto a few weeks after the June 16 uprisings to join Zwelike Sisulu, Joe Thloloe, Philip Mthimkulu, Ms Juby Mayet, Mathatha Tsedu, Thami Mazwai, Rashid Seria, and other colleagues from Port Elizabeth, East London, Cape Town and Bloemfontein to launch the Union of Black Journalists (UBJ).

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The UBJ, however, did not last long as the apartheid regime cracked down on the UBJ and 18 other anti-apartheid organisations on October 19 1977.

Now three years later in May 1980, while I was being detained, the security police demonstrated their brutality once again when they told me in no uncertain terms that they could hold me as-long-as they liked and the Daily News or anyone else could not do anything about it.

"We know you are an instigator. Wherever the children have been boycotting classes, we have seen you there. What were you doing, beside encouraging the children to stay away from school?", they asked accusingly.

"I was only doing my job", I protested.

"Please behave Mr Subramoney. We don't want to see any more of your slogans on the wall", said one of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On the sixth day of my detention, Sgt De Beer and another security policeman arrived early. It was about 9am.

 

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"We are going to release you. But we are warning you, we are not finished with you."

They drove along the North Coast road from the city of Durban and dropped me off at home at 30 Mimosa Road, Verulam at about 10:30am.

My mother was overjoyed. She was carrying my daughter, Seshini, who jumped off and ran towards me. I picked her up and just held her for some time.

It was a great feeling to be back at home.

But the troubles with the security police had just begun. 

 

 

 

 

                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“The authorities no doubt disliked the brand of radicalism propounded by these journalists. Many of their own colleagues, black and white, were uneasy about their avowed policy of using journalism for the express purpose of ‘Black liberation’. But one cannot lock up ideas.” – Durban Daily News Dec 30 1980

             BANNING

I returned to the Daily News a stronger person, determined to continue my work with passion. I began to concentrate on reporting what we as black journalists termed: "struggle politics" and the "political struggles" of the non-racial sporting movements, such as the South African Soccer Federation, the South African Non-Racial Swimming Federation, the Tennis Association of South Africa, the South African Council of Sport (SACOS) and the day-to-day struggles of ordinary people.

The non-racial sports leaders who were in the forefront of the struggles at this time included Mr Norman Middleton, Mr R K Naidoo, Mr Dharam Ramlall, Mr Abdul Bhamjee, Mr Ramhori Lutchman,

                                      -38-

 

and Mr George Singh. There were also football non-racial activists such as Danny Naidoo, G K Naidoo, Nel Pillay, Ajam Majid, Charles M Pillay, George Bailey, Bobby Naicker, Ashwin Trikamjee, S K Chetty, and Q Osman.

Then there were other leaders -  M N Pather in tennis and the S A Council of Sport; Mr Don Kali in tennis; Mr Morgan Naidoo in swimming; and Mr Hassan Howa, Mr Pat Naidoo, Mr Harold Samuels,

Abdullah Khan and Mr Krish Mackerdhuj in cricket and Mr Cassim Bassa in table tennis.

The resistance against apartheid had been hotting-up and I was considering the role I could play in this struggle. I began to consult with some of the resistance leaders inside the country at that time. The people I spoke to included Griffith Mxenge, a prominent anti-apartheid lawyer, United Democratic Front (UDF) leader Archie Gumede, Dr Korshed Ginwala, and Dr A E Gangat. At one of our meetings, it was decided that we should start a newspaper, to be called UKUSA, and that I should initiate the project. We chose the name UKUSA as it meant the new “DAWN” of freedom that the oppressed people were fighting for.

It was during this period that one of the activists, Pravin Gordhan, who after 1994 became a prominent personality in the new Government

                                      -39-

 

under Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and Cyril Ramaphosa, telephoned me and asked me to meet him outside the Daily News building.

I quickly walked out from our second-floor newsroom office and waited for him at the corner of Field and Pine Streets (now Joe Slovo and Monty Naicker streets).

After a while, he walked up to me from behind a wall and greeted me as comrades.

He discussed our newspaper project and indicated that he was asked to relay a message “from the movement” outside the country.

“They fully support the initiative by Griffith Mxenge and other members of the group. They say that they will encourage anti-apartheid groups outside the country to support the publication of the newspaper in every way possible.”

At this time Pravin was operating as an “underground cadre” of the ANC along with a few other activists.

It was during the late 1970s that I had witnessed Pravin in a car that was parked in West Street between Field Street and Gardiner Street (now Joe Slovo and Dorothy Nyembe streets).

There were a few white men, who looked like the dreaded security policemen, in the car as well. I

                                 -40-

 

managed to attract his attention and I gained the impression from his facial reactions that he was being detained by the security police.

The police car with Pravin and the white security policemen was parked only about 100 metres from where Pravin had met me only a month or two after his release from detention.

After my conversation with Pravin, I went back to my office. While sitting at my desk, I greeted a number of my colleagues and at the same time

thought about my future at the Daily News.

After a while I wrote a letter of resignation and handed it to the Editor, Mr Michael Green. He wrote back, saying that I would be greatly missed and that should I think of returning to the Daily News at any time, I would be welcomed back. Mr Green and his news editors acknowledged my commitment to journalism and the extent to which I would go to chase developments after stories related to anti-apartheid sporting and political events were highlighted in the media.

 

 

                                   

                                     

 

                                        -41-

(Letters by the Editor, John O’Mally, about my commitment as a journalist in following up top stories.)

-

 

 

 

 

 

                               -42-

 

(This letter was written by Mr Roy Rudden when I wanted to travel to Zimbabwe to work at the local Herald newspaper.)

 

After I wrote my letter of resignation, I, at the same time, wrote a letter to a prominent editor in Johannesburg who also worked for the Argus Group of newspapers at that time.

                                -43-

I explained to him that I would be leaving the Daily News at the end of December and I would be honoured to file some stories for him from Durban. The mistake I made was to tell him that I felt the Daily News was not covering all the stories affecting black people and that is the reason I had decided to leave the Daily News to start a black newspaper with Mr Griffith Mxenge, Mr Archie Gumede, Dr Khorshed Ginwala, Dr A E Gangat and the other black leaders.

It was an action that boomeranged.

A few days later I found a letter on my desk from Mr Green. He stated in no uncertain terms that he was surprised that I found the Daily News was not covering most of the news affecting black people effectively and that he did not know that I was unhappy at the Daily News. He said in view of this I should empty my desk of my personal belongings and leave immediately. I was sacked. It left me devastated.

Mr Green’s action shocked me, especially after he had earlier sent me a letter saying that I would be sadly missed at the Daily News. What brought about this sudden change in his attitude? I was confused. Then I realised I had sent the letter to the editor in Johannesburg. This editor had forwarded the letter I had sent him to my editor in Durban.

                                   -44-

I had not anticipated him doing this because I considered him to be "one of us" as he had also been detained by the notorious security police in 1977 and had been one of the bravest editors promoting the cause of the liberation of the people. He also suffered a five-year banning order.

I did not inform anyone of what had just happened but instead began to concentrate on launching the Ukusa newspaper and an alternative news agency, the Press Trust of South Africa.

The name, Press Trust of SA, was a suggestion given to us by another journalist colleague, Gary Govindsamy, who had just returned from his very first trip to his “mother” country. During his visit, Govindsamy made contact with editors at the Press Trust of India (PTI) in Bombay (now Mumbai). He passed on their names and contact details to me. I immediately wrote to the editors at PTI and finalised an agreement to supply them with news from South Africa. At first, we used to post our stories to them and later send them breaking news stories by a telex machine via the Post Office.

We continued with this mode of transmission for more than 10 years from our offices in Durban and later in the early 1990s from our office in Johannesburg.

Life became easier for us when the email was introduced in the mid-1990s.

                                -45-

Up to and even after freedom in 1994, Govindsamy never forgot to remind me on a regular basis that he was the one who made the arrangements with PTI and that I should tell the “comrades” in South Africa about his efforts.

At that time in the 1980s if you as a black person wanted to run a business or operate an office in the centre of Durban you had to obtain a special permit for this venture.

This was imposed on us by the Security Police when we operated from three buildings in the former West Street and from one office in the former Smith Street. In order to overcome this hurdle, I spoke to one of my former Daily News colleagues, Ms Ingrid Stewart. She agreed to sign a document to make it clear that she was the one who was leasing the office.  In April 1983, Ingrid, and my wife, Thyna, signed an agreement of partnership for Press Trust to operate from Escoval House, near the Durban High Court, in the former Smith Street.

This was the agreement that we put together in order to overcome any harassment from the Security Police.

 

 

 

 

                                  -46-

(Ingrid seen here with her husband, Richard De Villiers, during a visit to our home in Verulam when I was banned in the early 1980s.)

                                -47-

Ingrid Stewart and her family and our family became very close friends and we used to meet regularly at each other’s homes to socialise and discuss the political situation.

Ingrid also came to our assistance when we moved to Johannesburg in 1991 after I was appointed as a Foreign Correspondent of the Press Trust of India (PTI). I was looking for a place to stay and Ingrid used her position for me to purchase a house in the “white” residential area of Sandringham.

In the 1980s, while the Press Trust of SA News Agency was going to be our mode of contact with the PTI and newspapers and media organisations around the world, the UKUSA newspaper was to be part of the broad "struggle" newspapers around the country. The news agency was to submit "struggle" stories to the outside world.

At this time my struggle colleagues, Zwelike Sisulu, was involved in plans to set up an alternative newspaper, New Nation, in Johannesburg and Rashid Seria in Cape Town was setting up another alternative newspaper called Grassroots. 

 

 

 

                                    

                                     -48-

 

In Durban, with the assistance of one of the activists, Govin Reddy, who was banned and house-arrested at this time, and I set up office on the second floor of the 320 West Street building, near the Post Office and the old main railway station in central Durban. Reddy, who had a few years earlier returned home after studying overseas, had been a researcher at the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR). He was one of the people who had organised several protest meetings with the involvement of Catholic Archbishop, Denis Hurley, and several others. For his service to the cause of liberation he was slapped with a five-year banning order.

Reddy was forced to leave the SAIRR.

Reddy and I became very close friends after one day early in the 1970s he walked into the Daily News office at 85 Field Street (now Joe Slovo Street) in Durban, carrying a press release. He was smiling and looking for someone to talk to. I noticed him and immediately went up to him and introduced myself. He informed me that he had just been appointed by the SAIRR to work in their office in Durban and that the press release was about his appointment. I promised him that there would be no problem and that I would write a news story

 

                                      -49-

 

about his appointment.

Our relationship thereafter grew and we became very close friends, joining in the broader anti-apartheid struggles. It was against this background we decided that he would work with me in promoting the UKUSA newspaper.

He decided to work discreetly with me and he had an office next to mine on the second floor of the 320 West Street building.

While setting up the infrastructure for the launch of the newspaper, I started to immediately work for the Press Trust of India (PTI), BBC Africa Service, Radio Nederlands, Radio Deutsche Welle, Radio France Internationale, American Public Radio, WHUR News in Washington, and other radio stations in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Without any self-censorship, I began to bravely supply all the news outlets with stories that mainly related to the struggles of the people for freedom and liberation.

But this was not to last.

About two weeks after my birthday on 15 December 1980, security policeman De Wet and one of his colleagues walked into our office

                                     

                                 -50-

 

without any warning and just looked at me.

A few minutes earlier, Govin Reddy had walked in and had settled in his office, reading the morning newspaper, the Natal Mercury. He became aware of the presence of the security policemen and was listening intently to what was to unfold.

The security policemen carried a document and one of them said:

"Mr Subramoney, we have brought along a belated birthday present for you."

Without waiting for my response, De Wet said:

"You have been declared a communist and a threat to the security of the state. You have been issued with a banning and restrictive order which prevents you from continuing with your work as a journalist."

De Wet warned me that I should leave the office immediately because my banning order restricted me from entering any newspaper or media office and that I was restricted from entering any so-called African, Indian or Coloured residential area, except for the town of Verulam, where I lived, about 30km north of the city of Durban.

I was also warned that I was restricted to my home between 7pm and 6am daily and at weekends and that I was not allowed to receive

                                     -51-

any visitors or talk to more than one person at a time.

The banning order was for a period of three years.

The restriction order not only prevented me from continuing with my work as a journalist - to edit the UKUSA newspaper; but also prevented me from supplying the foreign media - news about the oppression and suppression of the black majority.

One of my colleagues at the Daily News, Quraish Patel, was in my office at the time the security policemen served me the banning order. He looked on in dismay. Patel was one of the journalist colleagues at the Daily News who also came under the scrutiny of the security police. He and another colleague, Wiseman Khuzwayo, who used to stay in the area of Mpumulanga, near Pietermaritzburg, were detained and kept in solitary confinement for three months under the apartheid regime’s notorious Internal Security Act. Another local journalist, Vas Soni, was also detained at this time. They were released without being charged or taken to court.

Patel knew very well the base character of the security police and, therefore, he did not find their behaviour and action in our office to be a surprise and any different to his own experiences.

After the security policemen issued another warning to me, they left.

                                   -52-

As soon as De Wet and his colleague departed, Govin came out of his office and told me not to

worry.

"It's the price one has to pay for speaking out against oppression," he said.

After further discussions with Govin, I walked out of the office carrying the banning order document with me. I walked to the offices of the president of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) at that time, Mr M J Naidoo. Mr Naidoo had his office in the so-called “Little India” section of the city called the “Grey Street area”.

“I am in big trouble”, I informed Mr Naidoo.

“What’s the problem, Subry?,” he asked.

“I have just been issued with a banning order and I don’t know what to do,” I said.

“It seems the security police came to know of our UKUSA project and they want to silence us.”

He advised me as follows: “Don’t worry Subry. We all have to pay the price for what we are fighting for. You are just another casualty in this process. Go home and think about what has just happened and then plan your road ahead.”

I was banned on the same day as one of my colleagues in Johannesburg, Zwelakhe Sisulu. Our banning orders generated a storm of protest, both in South Africa and internationally.

                                 -53-

My immediate former newspaper, the Daily News, published the following story as a front-page lead article on December 29 1980 under the headline: “Worldwide uproar at blows to the Press” and strap headline: “Waldheim urged to act on bannings.”

            

                                

                            -54-

 

 

  

 

Thereafter, several other colleagues, Phil Mthimkulu, Juby Mayet, Joe Thloloe, Mathatha Tsedu and Johnny Issel were also banned and                              house arrested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                

                                      -55-

 (Joe Thloloe)

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                          -56-

(Juby Mayet)

                                  

(Phil Mthimkulu)

 

Mthimkulu and I represented the Writers Association of SA (WASA) at a conference of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Nice in France in September 1978 at a time when I was still at the Daily News.

 

 

 

                                      -57-

(Philip Mthimkulu and Subry Govender attending the IFJ conference in Nice in France in 1978.The date on the photo represents the day a copy was made.)

                                            

We established WASA early in 1978 after the Union of Black Journalists (UBJ) was banned along with 17 other anti-apartheid organisations on October 19 1977.

I presented a comprehensive paper at the conference about the barbarity of the former apartheid regime against journalists, especially black media professionals, in South Africa. (This Paper is published under the headline:

 

“SUPPRESSION OF BLACK JOURNALISTS BETWEEN 1976 AND 1978” on page  )

 

 

                                -58-

MY FORMER NEWSPAPER – DAILY

NEWS – SPOKE OUT AGAINST OUR BANNINGS

 

The Daily News and other newspapers belonging to the Argus Group spoke out against our bannings. The Daily News in an editorial on December 30 1980 had this to say:

                                   

 

Under the headline, “Bannings”, the editorial read:

“Quite apart from the moral considerations of silencing a man who has committed no crime (otherwise he would presumably be charged in  --  

                                    -59-

 

court) and depriving him of his livelihood, one has to ask what the security authorities hope to achieve, even in their own terms, by doing so.

“Two black journalists have been served with banning orders. One is the son of a Robben Island prisoner who is regarded in many overseas circles as a martyr. The other is a local correspondent of the BBC and news agencies in West Germany,

Canada, the Netherlands, and Zimbabwe. The bannings, therefore, are guaranteed maximum publicity and South Africa’s critics will extract maximum benefit, as they did when black newspapers were closed down in 1977. Whose cause are the security authorities serving?

“And if the security considerations are genuinely so weighty, surely there must be a shred or two of evidence that could be produced in court?

“The authorities no doubt disliked the brand of radicalism propounded by these journalists. Many of their own colleagues, black and white, were uneasy about their avowed policy of using journalism for the express purpose of ‘Black liberation’. But one cannot lock up ideas. Argument and example are the country.

“Meanwhile, the bannings, along with the stopping on a technicality of three Black newspapers, are an ominous pointer to official attitudes.”

                              -60-

But despite the strong sentiments against our bannings, we were seen as "media terrorists".

I was especially charged with being “an instigator” by some politicians who worked the homeland system at that time. 

A few days after I was detained on May 28 1980, the “homeland” politicians had accused me of recruiting black people at the Daily News in Durban to join the ANC. They warned me that I was near the Indian Ocean and that I would be made to "swim back to India".

They had also referred to my action in visiting the township of KwaMashu in Durban to cover a story about school children who were holding a meeting at a local community hall. The school children were part of the thousands of children who had embarked on a boycott of "apartheid" education.

Here, I befriended a number of school children to get the inside story. One of the youngsters, Skumbuzo Manyoni, later became a very close friend and also worked with me at the alternative Press Trust of South Africa (PTSA) news agency we had started late in 1980.

Some reporters of the Ilanga Zulu newspaper, which at this time was owned by the Inkatha political party, were also at the meeting.

After my story about the meeting was published in the Daily News, several members of the KwaZulu

                              -61-

homeland took a swipe at me when addressing a session of the homeland assembly in the capital of Ulundi. 

                                   

 

                                   -62-

 

Some of the members accused me of “instigating” the children of the KwaMashu township in Durban to boycott classes and to join the country-wide education protests.

The Daily News published a report about the allegations under the headline: “Daily News reporter under fire in KwaZulu Assembly.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                      -63-

This report was written by a colleague, Arthur Konigkramer, who used to cover the KwaZulu Homeland legislature and the Inkatha political

                              

                                  

                              

                                 -64-

 

movement. He and I should sit opposite each other in the newsroom. We became very good friends but did not share the same political views about the country.

After I left the Daily News early in December 1980, Konigkramer also left the newspaper to take up the editorship of a newspaper owned by the Inkatha political party. After 1990, he joined the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and became a member of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Parliament.

The IFP’s attack on me in the KwaZulu Homeland Assembly at the same time of my detention and banning orders by the security police raised some questions.

Filing from Ulundi, the capital of the KwaZulu homeland, Mr Konigkramer published a report  under the headline: “Daily News reporter under fire in KwaZulu Assembly” early in June. The report read:

“Several members of the KwaZulu Legislative Assembly last night again attacked a Daily News reporter, Mr M. Subramoney, for the role he has allegedly played in the boycott of classes by African school children in KwaMashu.

“The Chief Minister, Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, said African reporters of the newspaper Ilanga had been chased out of a meeting of students at the

                                 -65-

 

KwaMashu cinema “no doubt egged on by the iconoclastic anarchists like Mr Subramoney”.

“Can you imagine? African reporters are chased out of a meeting in KwaMashu, while Mr Subramoney is not touched. That is strange to say the least. He owes us an explanation – that is very strange conduct.”

“Chief Buthelezi said he could also produce sworn statements from African drivers employed by The Daily News to the effect that Mr Subramoney had denigrated him and Inkatha and suggested to the drivers that they join the African National Congress.

“He could produce further examples of Mr Subramoney’s activities against Inkatha and the Black Alliance.

“Dr B S Ngubane said he wished to warn Mr Subramoney and his ilk that there comes a time when people must be told that they are going to feel the wrath of God”.

The normally soft-spoken Dr Ngubane showed signs of extreme anger when he warned ‘Mr Subramoney and his cohorts not to misuse our children’.

It appeared to him that there could be a tragedy in

                                   

                                -66-

KwaMashu in which many children would be hurt, but the action by the pupils ‘would not even make

a small dent in the apartheid structure’.

“Our people have suffered. They have borne that suffering with dignity. We will not allow the Subramoneys and those who live in Reservoir Hills (a suburb in Durban where some activists and leaders of the Natal Indian Congress lived) to denigrate our leader and to misuse our children”.

Mr Subramoney was also attacked by Mr Stephen Sithede and Mr R.R. Mdongwe.

“Mr Mdongwe managed to defuse the tense atmosphere in the Assembly when he said: ‘He must be very careful. He is very close to the Indian Ocean and the Inkatha current is very strong’.”

In another article published in the same week, Mr Konigkramer reported that the members had issued a warning that they would adjourn the Assembly so that Inkatha could deal with people who were organising and agitating among African school children in the township of KwaMashu.

Under the headline, “A warning for ‘agitators’” and a sub-headline, “Chief hits out over school protest”, Mr Konigkramer reported that the leaders also claimed that those behind the efforts to get African children to join the schools boycott were being supported by “activists sitting in white newspaper offices”.

                                   -67-

 

He wrote: “He named Mr Marimuthu Subramoney of The Daily News and said he wished to warn him as well that if he was trying to challenge Inkatha, the challenge would be met”.

“Chief Buthelezi said it was now clear that exactly the same pattern that occurred during the Soweto troubles of 1976 were now being followed in Natal.

“He said there were people who were prepared to misuse African school children and if necessary ‘walk over their dead bodies in order to achieve their own selfish aims.”

Mr Konigkramer was good enough to publish my reaction to the claims against me.

He wrote in the same article: “Commenting on Chief Buthelezi’s statement Daily News reporter, Mr Subramoney said: ‘I am totally mystified by Dr Buthelezi’s attack on me. I reject the statement that I am an activist.

‘I have merely reported the school boycotts truthfully and honestly.

‘I covered the schools boycott in KwaMashu only after The Daily News was telephoned by pupils from that area’.”

 

 

 

 

 

                                      -68-    

"I understand you want to become a reporter and you want to do some sports stories for us……. . “I see you are very keen and I would give you an opportunity to write stories for us." – Bobby Harrypersadh, Editor of Golden City Post in Durban in the early 1970s.

                    

          

 NATURAL ENTRY INTO             JOURNALISM          

 

My keen interest in community life and sport took an upward turn ever since I had started work after matriculating at the Verulam High School in 1965.

My father, Mr Subramoney Munien Govender, spoke to an acquaintance about finding me a job now that I had completed my schooling. This friend, Mr Govee Govender, used to meet my father on the train taking them to Durban. My father used to board the passenger train from Ottawa, our home village, and Mr Govender hailed from the next station stop of Mount Edgecombe.

Mount Edgecombe is one of the towns and districts where most of the Indian indentured labourers and

                                   -69-

their children had worked and settled since the early 1880s. Mr Govender’s great-grand-parents                                                                                                                                        had also arrived as indentured labourers from the Tamil Nadu state of India since the 1860s. After completing their indentures most of them continued to work in the sugar cane fields, in the sugar mills and in factories in and around the city of Durban.

Mr Govender himself worked as a clerk at the Guardian Assurance Company and he told my father that there was a chance of me obtaining a clerical position at his work place. At that time,

the offices of Guardian Assurance company were situated in a building at the corner of the former Gardiner (Dorothy Nymebe) and Smith (Anton Lembede) streets in central Durban.

It was early in 1966 that I was invited for an interview for a job as a clerk. The manager, a Mr Coleman, was a big, burly person and he gave the impression that he was in charge and no one should question his authority. During the interview in his office, he started off by asking me: “What is 2 plus 2?” I was taken aback a bit because I did not expect him to start with such a question.

But I gave him the answer.

He, thereafter, informed me that I would receive a salary of R40 a month, which I was told was half the salary that the white clerks were paid. I did not

                                  -70-

 

question him or other senior staff about this discrepancy but his statement did stir something

in me.

I asked myself how is it that white junior clerks were paid R80 a month, while young people like me were offered half the amount? 

I travelled on the train daily from Monday to Friday from Ottawa to Durban and to pass the time I read the morning, Natal Mercury, and afternoon, Daily News, newspapers avidly.

I devoured every item in the newspapers but first used to go to the back pages to read the sporting news and thereafter turn to the news pages.

It was during these periods that I told myself that I also wanted to become a reporter soon to cover the community news and the sporting events from my home district of Verulam.  At this time, I was also very keen on football and took an active interest in social and community life. I thought that it would be a good idea to cover these events in order to highlight the good work done by the community and sporting organisations.

I made enquiries at the local newspapers and at the same time enrolled with a correspondence college to study journalism. I completed my journalism course through correspondence in 1968.

 

 

                                    -71-

 H

I found the reporters and news editor at the afternoon Daily News newspaper very co-operative

                                   

                                -72-

 

and responsive. The news editor at that time at the Daily News was Mr Roy Rudden. After I made contact with him, I found that he was a liberal and very interested in the struggles of the black people. He had previously worked in Zambia and had some contacts with members of the ANC who had been in exile in that country.

He loved his job at the government-owned newspaper but did not take lightly to the President of Zambia, Kenneth Kaunda, scrutinising the political stories before they were published or broadcast.

He returned to South Africa and found a job with the then Argus Group as a senior journalist and news editor.

He was very supportive of my passion to become a reporter and suggested that I should attend community meetings and sports events, and write news stories and articles for the newspaper. He also encouraged me to read the books written by the British author, Graham Greene, and West Indian authors, V.S. Naipaul and Shiva Naipaul.

Up to this day the Graham Greene novels adorn my bookshelves. Some of the books by Greene that I still enjoy reading include – The Quiet American,

                                

 

                                        -73-

 

Brighton Rock and the Comedians.

I greatly appreciated the other two authors, V.S.

Naipaul and Shiva Naipaul – because they were of Indian-origin and had their roots in the West Indies. V.S. Naipaul’s books that I thoroughly enjoyed were: “A House for Mr Biswas”, which was mainly about the life of Indian-origin people in the West Indies; and “A Bend in the River”, which was about the changing African continent after independence, and “The Mimic Men”, which was about a colonial man’s experience in a post-colonial world. Shiva Naipaul’s novel that caught my attention was “North of South”, which he had written after making a journey through East Africa. I was very keen on V S Naipaul’s books because I wanted to know in detail the lives of people of Indian-origin in Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname and other West Indian islands where they had settled as indentured labourers.

At the time I made contact with Mr Rudden, I noticed that he had close relations with the Inkatha political leader, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi. On one occasion while I was visiting the Daily News in the late 1960s, I saw Prince Buthelezi being welcomed by Mr Rudden to the offices of the Daily News in Field Street (now Joe Slovo Street).

                                    -74-

 

The opportunity Mr Rudden gave me, I grabbed with both hands.

While working at my day job at the Guardian Assurance Company, I also kept an eye on developing events within the "Indian-origin” community. Guardian Assurance in the early 1970s moved to the 10th floor of Eagle Building in West Street (now Dr Pixley KaSeme), which was only about 120 metres from the Daily News building at 85 Field Street (now Joe Slovo).

In order to equip myself for the freelance reporter's work, I needed a typewriter. I scouted around various shops in Durban for a typewriter and eventually purchased one from a furniture establishment at the bottom end of Smith Street (Anton Lembede), near the Catholic Cathedral, which had become the home for many protest meetings under the leadership of Archbishop Denis Hurley.

I entered into an agreement with the furniture company to purchase the typewriter for an amount of R135 to be paid back over a few years at R2 a month.

One of the first stories that I covered was a meeting addressed by a professor, Dr Gavin Maasdorp, lecturer in Economics, from the then Natal University at the old Verulam Town Hall in

                                  -75-

 

(Todd Street) sometime in early 1969. He was invited by the local civic association to speak

about the changing life patterns of the "Indian-origin” people. The hall was packed to capacity with some of the local "Indian" leaders also in attendance. They included Mr Y S Chinsamy, Mr Ismail Kathrada, and Mr R L Beharie.

The professor gave a lengthy account of the “Indian” people. How they had arrived from India as indentured labourers since 1860 and till the early 1900s; how they toiled on sugarcane plantations on the north and south coasts of the then Natal Colony and thereafter when Natal became part of the Union of South Africa in 1910; how they had concentrated on education and in many cases built their own schools despite the hardships; how they had made progress as market gardeners; how they had risen above all odds and discrimination and moved into the different professions - clerks, teachers, doctors and lawyers - and how "they now no longer want to dirty their hands".

I wrote the story and the next morning before heading for my work at the insurance company, I went to the Daily News and handed Mr Rudden my typewritten news story. He looked at it and said: "It looks okay, Subry. I will see what I could do.

                                       -76-

 

Leave it with me."

I went to my insurance office and waited for the

afternoon newspaper. When the first edition of the Daily News was out in the streets by mid-day, I quietly sneaked out of the office and went to one of the vendors and asked him whether I could look at the newspaper. The newspaper vendor, who happened to be of Indian-origin, looked at me and said there would be no problems.

I flipped through the pages and it was in pages five or six that I noticed a one column story with the headline: "Indians don't want to dirty their hands."

It was my first news story to be published and I was on top of the world. 

I rushed back to the insurance office and told my colleagues that I had just had my first story published in the Daily News. Govee Govender, Krish Naidoo, Steve Naidoo and Philip Francis and I used to occupy an office at the back of the main front office where all the white clerks had their desks. We were "non-whites" and we were not allowed to sit with whites in the large main front office. We were closed off in a back office. Although it was the law of the land, it could have easily been broken in our office. But the company (a British subsidiary) wanted to maintain cordial relations with the apartheid rulers and, therefore,

                                  -77-

 

went along with the segregation of their staff.

My colleagues expressed their joy at the

information I relayed to them but warned me that I should take care that the “whites” in the office do not become aware of my journalistic work. 

It was the start of my freelance journalistic work that lasted for nearly five years. While doing community news stories for the Daily News, I, at the same time, covered soccer and cricket events for the Golden City Post, the Leader, and Graphic.

As a young man I was very energetic and enthusiastic about becoming a reporter. At weekends I used to travel by train from Ottawa to Verulam to cover the major soccer and cricket matches at the Verulam Recreation Ground. I even took photographs.

I used to return to our wood and iron house in Munn Road, Ottawa, and write up the sports stories, utilising my newly-purchased typewriter. I used a table in the open lounge and open bed room and under a paraffin lamp, to type my stories. The next morning, I used to drop them off at the offices of Post, which was based at the Goodhope Centre in the Grey Street (now Dr Yusuf Dadoo) area of Durban.

I remember my first visit to the Post newspaper office as being a nerve-wracking experience. As a

                                     -78-

 

cub reporter with very little experience, I walked into the office with my typewritten sports story in

my hand. I introduced myself and told the receptionist that I had written a sports story and wanted it to be published in the newspaper.

The newsroom was a hive of activity and the reporters were busy typing and chatting away.

They looked at me and must have wondered: "Here's another young man who thinks he can be a reporter."

The guys in the office, who later became very close friends, were Deven Moodley, M S Roy, Farook Khan, Morris Reddy, Tix Chetty, I A Khan and Rajendra Chetty. I gave Deven my typewritten story and he told me that he would look at it.

I informed Deven that I wanted to cover the sports stories in Verulam every week and would give it to Post for publication. He listened to me very intently and then asked me to talk to his editor, Mr Bobby Harrypersadh.

"Good morning Sir," I greeted Mr Harrypersadh.

"Don't worry about Sir, just call me Bobby," he responded.

"I understand you want to become a reporter and you want to do some sports stories for us," he said.

Mr Harripersadh was a rounded man who dressed

                               -79-

very neatly, in a tie and long sleeve shirt.

I informed him that I was from the North Coast village of Ottawa, near Verulam, and that I was working for the Guardian Assurance Company as a clerk but my ambition was to eventually become a full-time journalist. I told him that I first wanted to do some freelance work and to obtain some

experience.

"Subry", he said, "don't worry".

"I see you are very keen and I would give you an opportunity to write stories for us."

Mr Harrypersadh called Deven and informed him that I was going to be their Verulam correspondent and that he must assist me.

At the same time, I was introduced to Mr G R Naidoo, who occupied an office right next door to Mr Harrypersadh. Mr Naidoo, sporting a smart-shaped beard, at this time was the Durban Editor of Drum Magazine.

It was the start of a relationship that opened up many opportunities for me.

I covered mainly local sporting events in Verulam, and, also, community news.

Every Monday afternoon, after I finished my work at the Guardian Assurance Company, I used to rush from my offices at the corner of West and Field Streets to the offices of Post and assist them

                                      -80-

wherever I could. Then when all the work was

completed, all of us - Roy, Deven, Farook, Tix and I - used to drive to the Louis Botha Airport to drop off a package - containing the stories from the Durban office – to be sent to the head office of Post in Johannesburg. 

 

(M S Roy -centre- with Deven Moodley and another colleague who were working at Post Newspaper in the 1970s and 1980s.)

 

Thereafter, we used to drive to a local hotel, Railway Hotel, in Isipingo, where we used to enjoy ourselves drinking lots of beer. At times these drinking sessions led to some extra activities like chatting and picking up ladies of the night. On one occasion, I recall that after picking up a lady of the night, we drove to the Isipingo beach. Here one of

                                    -81-

 

our colleagues, drunk beyond comprehension, took

the lady outside the car.

Deven, Farook, Tix Chetty and I could hear him saying: "Come on madam, be nice." And he was using some colourful language to get his message across to the young lady.

After sessions like these I used to return home late in the night at about 11 and 12 pm or in the early hours after mid-night. My mother used to worry but I would tell her that I wanted to become a fulltime reporter and I must be grateful to Post for allowing me to work with them on Monday evenings.

At the same time while writing sports articles for Post and news items for the Daily News, I also used to write community news for the Leader and Graphic newspapers – two newspapers that catered mainly for the Indian-origin community. It was at the Leader that I first met Brijlall Ramguthee, who at that time used to go as R. Brijlall; Dennis Pather and Sunny Bramdaw. I also encountered the "Old Lady" Mrs Bramdaw at the offices of the Leader, which was situated a few blocks away from the Post newspaper offices in the former Queen Street, (now Denis Hurley Street).

Dressed in a sari, she appeared to be a person who had total control over the running of the

                                  -82-

newspaper, which was started by her husband.

Ramguthee later joined the Post newspaper and it was here that our bond and friendship grew and strengthened. Pather later moved to the Graphic newspaper.

Our work as reporters and I, as a freelance reporter, brought all of us together and we held regular gatherings at the homes of Bobby Harrypersadh and other colleagues. These were occasions we looked forward to as it gave us an opportunity to get pasted and, also to talk about the major events and topics gripping the people. We especially concentrated on soccer, cricket, swimming, tennis and the role players involved.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                    -83-

 

(R Lutcman)(Mr Bijou)

(Morgan Naidoo)

(Photo of some of the anti-apartheid sports leaders during the sports anti-aparteid struggles.)

 

Some of the sports leaders at this time were Norman Middleton, Ramhori Lutchman, R K Naidoo, George Singh, SK Chetty, Charles Pillay, Vic Pillay, Dharam Ramlal, M N Govender and others in football; M N Pather in tennis; Pat Naidoo, Harold

                                   -86-

Samuels, Krish Mackerdhuj and others in cricket; Cassim Bassa in table tennis and Morgan Naidoo in swimming. All these leaders used their different codes not only to call for the isolation of racist sport but also used the sporting arena to articulate the creation of a non-racial, free, and a new democratic South Africa.

I was learning a great deal about the struggles of the people in the social, educational, sports, and political fields. This helped me a great deal in covering community and other news stories for the Daily News as a freelancer. I soon also became involved in doing freelance sports reporting for the Sunday Tribune and later for the Natal Mercury after Deven Moodley left the Post to join the morning newspaper. Weekends used to be hectic for me as I used to write whatever top sports stories for the Sunday Tribune on Saturday afternoons and then on Sunday, I used to report on the professional soccer matches played at Currie's Fountain under the auspices of the South African Soccer League (SASL) and later the Federation Professional League (FPL) for the Natal Mercury. I also had contacts in the different areas such as Chatsworth and in Johannesburg who acted as correspondents. I used to telephone the sports officials from the offices of the Mercury to obtain the results and reports of soccer and cricket matches.

                                 -87-

“WHY ARE YOU CAUSING PROBLEMS

       IN OUR OFFICE?”

 

My stay at Guardian Assurance did not last. It was sometime late in 1968 or 1969 that I gathered enough courage to write an article for the company’s magazine. I used the platform to pose the question why separate premiums were applied to people of colour on one side and to “whites”, on the other, for motor and other short-term insurances.

Mr Coleman called me to his office and asked: “Mr Subramoney, why are you causing problems here. Your article sent to the magazine is not acceptable.”

He then warned me that the he and other staff members were aware about my freelance work as a reporter and that I should not infringe office hours.

I apologised and said I would take the necessary precautions. But sometime in 1969, I was spotted by some staff members leaving the office and taking the lift down to the ground floor. The lifts in this building were also separated for people

                                 

 

                               

                                -88-

 

according to their colour lines. Most of the lifts were for “whites only” and at least two for “non-whites”.

I observed the segregation laws when “whites” were around but there were occasions when I got into lifts that were reserved for “whites only”.

On this occasion I used a lift for “whites” and this action was witnessed by one of our office “messengers”, who I knew as Jackson Ndhlovu. He approached me and said: “Subry, please take care. The whites here only like Africans, Indians and Coloured people who say ‘Ja baas’.”

I told Ndhlovu, who used to stay in the township of KwaMashu near the area of Duffs Road in Durban, that I was not concerned about them because I am not going to treat myself as a “second class” citizen.

I continued my walk to the nearby Daily News office to speak to Mr Rudden.

When I returned, I was called to the office of Mr Coleman and given a letter.

The letter informed me that I had broken office rules and because of this I was dismissed forthwith.

Although it was a major shock, I just walked out after informing my colleagues of what had just

                                 -89-

 

taken place. I even saw Ndhlovu and he was not pleased to hear that I had been fired for leaving the office during working hours.

When I returned home that evening, I did not tell anyone of what had taken place. The next morning, I left for “work” as normal and boarded the usual train for Durban. When I arrived at the station, I quickly purchased the Mercury newspaper and went through the vacancy columns to see if I could find any job. I noticed that there was a vacancy for a clerk at the SA Wire Company near where the Durban Central Prison was situated. The area has now been transformed and is where the International Convention Centre (ICC) is located.

I walked to the company offices and enquired about the job. I was interviewed by the manager and was immediately hired to work as a clerk.

This brought me great relief and I worked there for about six months before I obtained a position as a clerk at the Pearl Assurance Company in West Street. Here the manager, Mr Gabriel Sabido, a former American with Mexican roots, was impressed with my enthusiasm to work for an insurance company. I informed him about my freelance work as a reporter. He did not mind and assured me that he had no problems as long it did not interfere with my work at his office.

                                    -90-

 

Mr Sabido’s stance encouraged me to continue with my freelance work for the Daily News, Post and other publications. 

 

JOINED DAILY NEWS ON A FULL-TIME BASIS IN EARLY 1973 

 

The chance to join the Daily News on a fulltime basis came at the beginning of March 1973. This was about five years after I had worked as a freelance reporter for the newspaper and other publications such as the Golden City Post, the Leader, Graphic, The Natal Mercury and the Sunday Tribune.

The only “Indian-origin” reporter on the Daily News staff, Mr P M Chetty, passed away sometime early in 1973 and I was invited by Mr Rudden and interviewed by Mr O’Mally, the editor.

Mr O’Mally told me that this was a great opportunity for me and they were fully aware of my work as a freelancer. They appreciated my commitment and my willingness to work long hours in pursuing breaking and other stories.

He told me that I would be paid R250 a month. 

Of course, when I joined, no one, including Mr Rudden and other colleagues, had come forward to

                                      -91-

 

inform me that the canteen for the workers had been divided along race lines. One section was for whites and another for “non-whites”. I questioned my colleagues about this and they said that I should ignore the segregation rules and join them in the main section.

My enquiry of this situation soon led to the management of the Daily News doing away with the segregated facilities. All the staff members were told that they could purchase their lunch and other meals from one large canteen.

During my stay at the Daily News from March 1973 to December 1980, I earned the reputation of being a committed journalist who went the extra mile to cover most of the anti-apartheid sports and political stories and who earned the respect of not only the anti-apartheid leaders but also my news editors, editors and my colleagues.

On November 12 1975, our news editor, Mr David James, wrote a letter to the editor, Mr John O’Mally, pointing out my passion for my work as a journalist. 

 

 

 

 

                                       -92-

 

                                                                        -93-

This is what he said:

“It is fairly common knowledge that Mr Subramoney is one of the most enthusiastic and competent members of the newsroom staff. This point hardly needs belabouring, but I feel that his performance today does bear some comment.

“I was approached early this morning and advised, in view of the ‘Leon sacking’ report, that I should recall Mr Subramoney from leave to handle the story in view of his contacts in the Coloured Council.

“My reply to this advice was that a telephone call to Mr Subramoney would be an unnecessary expense, as I was confident that he would come in any way.

“Sure enough, ten minutes later, Mr Subramoney was at his desk, talking to the Coloured Representative Council Executive in Cape Town.

“It has been my experience that there are very few reporters left nowadays with the above kind of dedication and I would merely like it brought to your attention that Mr Subramoney’s completely professional approach to his job is a tonic to those senior to him, and an example to all his colleagues.”

To this, Mr O’mally, responded as follows:

 

                                  -94-

 

                                -95-

 

“He is, as you say, a first-class reporter and an example to all his colleagues. I trust that we will be able to show our appreciation of his contribution in more material terms at the end of the year.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                       -96-

 

                                     

                                 -97-

 

And then he went on: “David, Please tell Mr Subramoney how much his zeal in the pursuit of good stories is appreciated. Two recent examples – the Norman Middleton passport scoop which was a model of diligent following up, and the Mabandlas flee S.A. story where Mr Subramoney’s first-class contacts paid off handsomely. And of course, the Pather’s passports story.”

When Mr O’Mally was talking about the Mabandlas he was referring to activists, Mr Lindeliwe Mabandla, and his wife, Brigitte, who skipped the country early in October 1975. There was no news about which country they had fled to but through my contacts I was told that they had found refuge in Botswana.

This is the story that I had written.

 

 

 

 

                               -98-

 

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL AWARENESS: THE   OTTAWA COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE

 

My interest in politics began while I was still a young boy growing up in the small village of Ottawa, which was situated between the towns of Mount Edgecombe and Verulam on the north coast of the province of Natal in South Africa. The people who settled here were mainly former indentured labourers (slaves) and their children who worked on the neighbouring sugarcane plantations of Ottawa, Mount Edgecombe, Blackburn, Sacks Estate and other nearby sugarcane estates.

Most of the residents in the Ottawa village had their roots in the Bihar state in northern India. They had come to work on the sugarcane estates here via Calcutta, now Kolkatta.

My ancestors started their lives as indentured labourers at the Blackburn Sugar Estate where my grand-mother, Muniamma, and her sister, Yellamah, were born in 1882 and 1884 respectively. 

The Ottawa village also comprised a number of Tamil families, a few Muslim families, and some Christian families who were Tamils. There was at

                                   -99-

 

least one Muslim family whose ancestors had

come from Tamil Nadu. There was also one

Gujarati Hindu family.

At least two of the Muslim families – the Latiffs and Hans – ran local shops in the village. They had their roots in the north Indian state of Gujerat.

We all lived like one “big extended family” and every one participated in each other’s cultural festivals. This was done irrespective of whether one’s mother tongue was Tamil, Hindi, Urdu, and Gujarati or whether we belonged to the Hindu, Muslim or Christian faiths.

We used to be in and out of our neighbours’ homes and we were treated as children of all the families.

In one incident, I recall that one of Mr Latiff’s sons, Cassim, and I became close friends after he enrolled at the University for Indian-origin students at Salisbury Island in Durban. I was at this time doing standard nine.

Our discussions would always revolve around the activities of the students who had become involved in fighting against apartheid and white minority rule. I used to visit the Latiff home in Central Ottawa on a regular basis and also when the family moved to the Uplands area of Ottawa after relocating their shop to the area of

                                       -100-

 

Springvale, near Avoca.

I used to join Cass and help him at the shop in Springvale. He used to compensate me with some

cash for helping out at weekends.

On one occasion during my visit to the home, Mrs Latiff lightened up my visit with these words: “Welcome Marimuthu. You are also one of our sons.”

I had a similar experience with one of our neighbours, Mrs Dutt, in Munn Road. Her husband was our local plan drawer who had an office in the neighbouring town of Verulam.

Mrs Dutt and her husband had a large family of several sons and daughters and I used to visit their home on a regular basis to be in touch with two of the sons, Gokool, and Mannia. Mannia was a very good football player and we used to train at the nearby school ground daily.

Mrs Dutt, who we used to call “Baynee”, was one of the most kind-hearted, gentle and helpful persons in our neigbourhood. In addition to treating us as one of her own children, she also used to take care of my youngest sister, Childie, on weekdays when my mother had to work at the local Flash Clothing Factory.

About 10km from our little village of Ottawa was

                                  -101-

the sugar estate of Blackburn, which was one of several sugar estates nearby where many

descendants of indentured labourers continued to toil in the sugar cane fields of major sugar

companies and their bosses.

My great grandparents, who were also indentured or “coolie” labourers, worked at the Blackburn Sugar Estate when they arrived in early 1881 from their little village in the state of Tamil Nadu in India.

My research into their lives revealed that my ancestors, Mr Kandasamy Naiken, and his “wife”, Thanjee, had to flee their village of Navalpore in the District of North Arcott because they had fallen in love and conceived my grandmother, Muniamma, out of wedlock.

My father and mother, who started their married lives in Cato Manor and later in the town of Isipingo, moved to Ottawa in 1956 after my father was informed by relatives that descendants of indentured labourers had also settled in the village.

He made contact with some of my mother’s relatives and friends and managed to rent a piece of land in Munn Road in the Tin Town area of the town. He was assisted in building a wood and iron house of one-bedroom, open lounge that was also a

                                   -102-

 

bedroom at night, and a kitchen with the help of

neighbours in the area - Narain Naicker, Jack Naidoo, Tip Top Naidoo, Reggy Pillay and Pushpa

Naicker.

We moved into the tin house sometime in late 1956. I remember that our bathroom was cut out of an old water tank that was situated outside the house and our toilet was situated some distance from the main wood and iron house. The toilet was also built of wood and iron and a large hole was dug into the ground. A few years later we were provided the bucket system by the local municipal Board. The buckets were removed once a week by workers of the municipal board.

For water we used to walk to the nearby Ottawa river to fetch both drinking and washing water in large tin containers. We used to carry two of the containers in what used to be called a banga (aka a slug) placed over one’s shoulder.

We had a number of neighbours, who were mainly Hindi speaking. They included Johnny, his wife Sookaya and his family; the Bobby Singhs; the Balmohans; the Duttoos; Bhagwandeens; Harrys, and the Dutts. Then we had the Tamil families in our Tin Town area who included the Narain Naickers; the Jack and Tip Top Naidoos; Ganesan,

                                  -103-

 

Kandasamy, and Nanda Naidoo family, John Chetty

family and the Ganas Govender family.

Although we all were very poor, all the families worked very hard – either in the sugarcane fields,

or on the railways, in clothing factories and as ordinary labourers. My mother worked as a machinist for Mr S S Maharaj at his Flash Clothing factory in the village. My father worked in Maydon Wharf in Durban for Lever Brothers. He worked as a labourer and laundry hand for nearly 40 years, earning as little as R10 a week.

It was here in Munn Road, Ottawa, that my youngest sister, Natachtramma (Childie) was born. She was delivered in our tin shanty home by the local midwife, who lived nearby. We used to refer to the midwife as “medicine ayaa” (granny).

We all celebrated the festivals of Deepavali (Diwali), Kavady, Eid and other Muslim festivals, Christmas and New Year without any inhibitions and used to be in and out of our and our neighbours’ homes like one huge family. We took part in the multi-cultural festivities even though all our parents struggled to “put food on the table” and provide us with new clothing on special days. For instance, I got my first pair of shoes on the last day of my schooling at the Jhugroo Primary School

                                   -104-

 

in 1961.

The kind-hearted personalities of Mrs Latiff, Mrs Dutt, several other neighbours and their children at that time demonstrated that people of Indian-origin in the early days never thought of being divided

along religious, language, caste or cultural lines.

The way of life for us was not unique as similar patterns prevailed in all villages and towns where people of Indian-origin settled after completing their indentures on the sugar cane fields in sugar estates around the city of Durban and on the north and south coasts of

 Natal.

 

 

                                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                     -105-

 (Ottawa community leader, Mr S S Maharaj, with his wife.)

 

 

“WIPE YOUR SHOES WITH THE REPUBLIC FLAG”

                           

It was against this kind of background that prepared me for my journey as an activist journalist.

It started in 1960 when I was 14 years-old.

At this time the white and apartheid South African Government was busy preparing to celebrate the

                              -106-

 

withdrawal of the country from the British

Commonwealth and the establishment of a Republic. The Government had asked all its provincial administrations, including the schools for “Indian-origin” children, to celebrate the establishment of the Republic. Miniature versions of the new Republic flag had been distributed to all government-controlled institutions and the people were expected to wave the flags in order to welcome the establishment of the Republic.

Mr S S Maharaj, a former South African "non-white" tennis champion, was the owner of the local Flash Clothing Factory in the village. He was not only a local leader but a great humanitarian, who made enormous contributions towards the building of our new Jhugroo Government-Aided Indian School, which I attended at this time. His sons - Pravin and Veeran - and daughters - Prithima and Rishla - were my good friends and we often played together. He

had another son, Santosh, who was way too young to be a playmate at this time.

In addition to helping to build our new village school, Mr Maharaj also set up a voluntary organisation to provide a free funeral service for the people of the village and the nearby town of Verulam and its surrounding areas.

A few days before the main celebrations, I

                              -107-

 

approached Mr Maharaj at his office and told him that we, as school children, had been asked to

carry the new flags and to join in the celebrations. I don’t know why I did this but it seems that it was within me to ask questions.

"I don't know anything about this big celebration. What should we do?,” I asked Mr Maharaj.

He looked at me with some surprise and wanted to know why I was asking all these questions.

"Young man this celebration is about the white man showing that he's the ruler and he wants all of us to join him. I want to suggest that you don't have any reason to celebrate but what you could do is take the flags and use them to wipe your shoes," he said somewhat seriously.

I did not know what Mr Maharaj was saying but it definitely made an impression.

The construction of the Jhugroo Government-Aided

Indian school, which was built by voluntary labour and through the sweat and toil of the local people, was made possible mainly through Mr Maharaj’s initiative and hard work. I recall that my father, Mr Subramoney Munien, known as Freddy; Mr Munoo Maharaj of Maharaj Road; Mr Dunoo Singh of School Road; Mr S S Badlu of Kissoon Road, Mr M M Naicker of Tin Town, our neighbour; Mr Parthab,

                            -108-

the local market gardener and farmer; Mr Latiff and scores of others used to volunteer their labour every weekend to build the new school. Mr Badlu,

in fact, was the general manager and supervisor of the building operations.

One of Mr Badlu's daughters, Yamawathie, was in my class in standard five at the time the school was preparing for the launch of Republic Day celebrations. She was a very good friend and class mate. She knew about my interest in politics but we did not talk about this. We were very naïve about what was happening in the country at that time. One of her brothers, Kemraj, had gone to India to study medicine and I was keen to find out more about this place called “India”.

After I started to attend the Verulam High School in the neighbouring town with the same name in 1962, I lost contact with Yamawathie.

The Ottawa school principal, also known as Mr S S

Maharaj, was busy putting into place a programme for the celebration of the advent of "Republic Day". As a pupil in standard five I took careful notice of what was going on.

Teachers and pupils were busy putting up a pole where the new flag would be unveiled at the start of the celebrations. A day before the celebrations, March 30 1960, the teachers had rolled the flag up the pole - all in readiness for March 31 - Republic

                                 -109-

 

Day.

The school at that time had no gates or security guards. That evening I took a cool walk from our

wood and iron home, which was only about 200 metres away. I went up to the pole where the flag was hoisted and slowly and deftly untied the knot and pulled down the flag. I folded the flag into a tiny piece and briskly walked away with it. I went down to the nearby Ottawa River and threw the flag into the fast, flowing waters.

The next morning, as usual, I went to school and walked into my classroom, where our teacher, Mr Ken Rajoo, was already waiting for us.

"Boys and girls Mr Maharaj is in an angry mood. He is busy walking up and down wanting to know what has happened to the flag that was put up yesterday for today's function," said Mr Rajoo, who had qualified as a teacher only recently at the

Springfield Teachers’ College of Education in Durban.

I maintained my silence and allowed Mr Rajoo to tell us that Mr Marahaj was in a furious mood because he would not be able to obtain another flag to hoist and celebrate the start of the new Republic of South Africa.

"That would be very sad," I heard one of my fellow

                                     -110-

 

classmates saying. The celebration was not much of an affair but the boys and girls did enjoy the cool drinks and the sandwiches that were provided.

The pulling down of the flag and dumping it into

the river was my first act of "sabotage" - carried out all by myself at an age when I did not know what politics was all about; when I did not know that Nelson Mandela was being hunted by the apartheid regime; when I did not know that we "Indian-origin" people were subjected to all kinds of racial discrimination in the same way and just like our fellow African and coloured brothers and sisters.

       

“COOLIE SUGAR CANE FIELD WORKERS”

 

My social and political awakening took another upward turn when after completing my standard six at the Jhugroo Government-Aiden Indian School in 1960, I began attending Verulam High School. 

Verulam was also a place where mostly former indentured or “coolie” labourers and their children had settled. Although the people of Indian-origin made up the majority of residents, the town was run by white people who were immigrants from the British Isles.

                            -111-

 

Here in standard seven, my history master was Mr Kissoon. He did not come across as a political activist or political agitator but during his history lessons, he would on almost every occasion say

something about the racial discrimination that Indian-origin people, along with African and Coloured people, encountered in their everyday lives. He informed us about the fact that the "non-white" people - as we were referred to by the apartheid authorities at that time - had no political rights and that "we were ruled by the white government".

During the school holidays my father made it clear that I should not stand around and be idle. He

wanted me to engage in some kind of work to earn “a few bobs”. (In those days we used to refer to coins as “bobs”.)

My friend who lived near our home in the Tin Town part of Ottawa, Ruthnam “George” Naidoo, and I decided to work as casual labourers during the school holidays in the sugar cane fields owned by the Ottawa Sugar Estate.

When we were in standard six at the new Jhugroo school, Ruthnam and I used to make sure that we were well prepared for our examinations despite the lack of proper lights and appropriate conditions at our homes. We decided that in order to

                              -112-

 

overcome the lack of lights we would study in the evenings under the street lights near our homes. So, it was not a surprise when every evening during the examinations, Ruthnam (who was also

known as George) and I stood under the street lights in lower Munn Road to study. Our neighbours, Sookiya and Johnny, and the Bobby Singh family used to praise us for being that innovative.

“These boys are an example to our children,” Johnny used to tell my mother and father.

When we joined together to work in the sugarcane fields during our high school holidays, it attracted the attention of Mr S S Maharaj, the clothing

factory owner.

He congratulated us for our initiative and asked his son, Veeran, to join us. But we were not too happy about this because Veeran was the son of a factory owner and it would not be appropriate for such a person to work in the fields.

But Mr Maharaj told us: “Let Veeran join you all because he must also learn about what it’s like to work in the sugarcane fields.”

So, it was sometime in April 1961 that Ruthnam, Veeran and I pitched up on a hill top, known as Gazards, near Ottawa where all the workers of the

                                    -113-

 

sugarcane estate had gathered to start their day’s work. We joined them and were told because we were high school boys on holiday, we would be paid thirty cents for a day’s work of weeding the sugarcane fields.

Most of the women, dressed in saris, were surprised to see us. One woman asked in the Tamil language:

“Yena intha payinango intha vela porongo? Angu vanthu high school porongo.”

Translated it meant: “Why do these boys want to do this work. They are going to high school”.

We informed the women that we also want to work in the sugarcane fields because we want to make

some money during our school holidays.

It was on the third day of our work in the fields when I noticed the supervisor, who was called a “sardaar”, using some foul language and shouting at the women about their work.

I don’t know what went through my head that I dropped my hoe and went up to the supervisor and confronted him about his unkindly attitude towards the women workers. I asked him why was he shouting at the women labourers and why can’t he talk to them in a decent manner?

The supervisor, a person of Indian-origin, was

                                      -114-

 

taken aback. He couldn’t believe that a young man, who was still in school, was questioning his authority and his attitude to his workers.

“What business is it to you? You are just a worker here and you must not question me as to how I talk

to the workers. You must know I am in charge here.”

Then he went to the point.

“If you don’t want to work under my supervision, you can return the hoe and just leave.”

I retorted: “Keep your job.”

I walked back to my friends, Ruthnam and Veeran, and reported to them about my interaction with the supervisor. They said if I was not going to continue

to work then they would also leave.

We wished the other workers goodbye and told them that their “sardaar” was not a “good man”. He was just like his bosses.

After a week, all three of us received 90 cents each from a representative of the sugar company for working three days on the sugarcane fields.

The incident was yet another experience that contributed to my education about the political, social and economic situation in South Africa in the early 1960s. 

And then in my final two years at high school in

                                   -115-

 

1964 and 1965, we had another history teacher, Mr P A Pillay, who was from the town of Dundee in Northern Natal. We used to refer to him as PAPs.

Mr Pillay was more forthright during his history lessons. He would speak out against the racial

policies of the White government and inform the pupils that there were many people and organisations involved in the struggles to be free in the land of their birth. 

Mr Pillay left the teaching profession after a few years and became an attorney. It was this profession that boasted most of the activists who became members of organisations such as the NIC, ANC and PAC. I learned after I entered the field of journalism that Mr Pillay was a member of

the Non-European Unity Movement (a radical political movement that was not interested in negotiations but instead the immediate transfer of power to the people). The organisation called for radical transformation of the country.

Mr Pillay was one of my teachers at high school who was responsible for sowing the seeds of a “rebellion” in me against the white government. I was not the only pupil who was inspired by Mr Pillay. I can clearly recall that another class mate, Shireen Akbar, also displayed an interest in the political and social situation at that time. On one

                             -116-

 

occasion, without any fear, Miss Akbar asked Mr Pillay about the apartheid policies and what should be done to defeat the proponents of the evil system.

Her action also encouraged me.

(My matric class at the Verulam High School in 1965. Shireen Akbar is seated extreme right, and I am standing top row extreme left.)

 

Mr Pillay, after he entered the legal field, married an activist, Miss Navanethan Pillay, who after South Africa attained its freedom in 1994, served two terms as the Human Rights High Commissioner at the United Nations.

                    

         

                                     -117-

 

OTTAWA RED CROSS SOCIETY

(Mr Moses and Mr Dicky Maharaj - second and third from right are Ottawa Red Cross officials who provided leadership in the early days.)

 

In addition to my love for soccer while growing up in Ottawa in the mid-1960s, I also became involved with the Ottawa branch of the S A Red Cross Society. I was only a high school kid and together with a fellow pupil, Chotu, who lived with his family in the Uplands area of Ottawa village, I joined several adults to get involved in the Red Cross.

Our branch of the SA Red Cross Society comprised several people who I regarded as leaders of the community. They included Mr Balmohan (Mr Barley), who lived at the bottom end of Munn Road in the Tin Town area; Mr Dicky Maharaj, who was a

 

                                     -118-

 

manager at his brother, Mr S S Maharaj’s Flash Clothing Factory at the corner of School and Munn Roads; Mr Moses, who lived in a house near Chotu and his family; Mr Ramnanan, who owned a shop in the Uplands area; and Pastor Daniel, who lived with his wife, in a house owned by the Dunoo Singh family in School Road.

They all, together with Mr Padaychee from the head office of the Red Cross, instilled the values of “service to humanity” in my early teens – values that prepared me for my work as an activist journalist for more than 50 years of my life in the media world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                            

 

                          -119-        

JOURNALISTS PAY THE PRICE FOR MEDIA FREEDOM

(Joe Thloloe)

 

 

 

 

 

                                    -120-

(Mona Badela and Zwelike Sisulu)

(Mathatha Tseudu and Juby Mayet)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                    -120-

(Mona Badela and Zwelike Sisulu)

(Mathatha Tseudu and Juby Mayet)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                               -121-

Leslie Xinwa, Phlip Mthimkulu, Isaac Moroe, and Duma Ndlovu)

The darkest day in the history of Press Freedom no doubt was this day on October 19 1977 when the notorious apartheid Minister of Police, Jimmy Kruger, not only banned the UBJ but also banned the only two newspapers that earned the respect of majority of the people - the World and Weekend World.

 

                                   -122-

Mr Kruger, who became infamous for describing Steve Biko’s death two months earlier as – “It leaves me cold” – at the same time banned the UBJ publication - AZIZTHULA; religious and student publications; locked up the editor and news editor of the World and Weekend World – the late Percy Qoboza and the late Aggrey Klaaste respectively; and banned for five years the Editor of the Daily Dispatch, the late Donald Woods.

Six other journalists were also detained at this time – including Thenjiwe Mntintso, who became an ANC functionary after 1994 and appointed as an ambassador; and Enoch Duma – who worked for the Star newspaper at that time. He fled into exile after being released from more than two years in detention.

Almost every member of the UBJ was visited by the security police all over the country; their homes and offices raided and searched and interrogated. All the raids were carried out at the unearthly hours of 4am and 5am in the morning. I remember my mother knocking on my door and saying in our Tamil mother tongue: “Some white people are here asking for you.”

When representations were made to Mr Kruger for the release of the detained journalists, he had the temerity to announce that the detentions were not

                                  -123-

meant to intimidate the Press and that his Government had good reasons to detain the journalists.

It was during this traumatic period that another publication of the UBJ, UBJ Bulletin, and all subsequent editions were banned. The UBJ Bulletin contained some revealing articles about the activities of the South African Police during the Soweto uprisings. Four UBJ officials – Juby Mayet, Joe Thloloe, Mike Nkadimeng and Mike Norton – were charged for producing an undesirable publication.

Inspite of world-wide condemnation of the banning, detention and harassment of journalists, the state security police continued with their jack-boot tactics.

In Durban two Daily News journalists – Wiseman Khuzwayo and Quraish Patel – were detained without trial for more than three months.

 

 

 

 

 

                                 -124-

(Zwelike Sisulu and Juby Mayet leading the march in Johannesburg against the banning of the UBJ and other organisations)

On November 30 1977, the day white South Africa went to the polls to give John Vorster another mandate to continue to oppress the majority, 29 journalists, including Zwelakhe Sisulu and Ms Juby Mayet, staged a march in the centre of Johannesburg against the banning of the UBJ and the detention of journalists. They were detained for the night at the notorious John Vorster Police station and charged under the Riotous Assemblies Act and fined R50 each.

Some of our colleagues who found it impossible to continue to work in South Africa skipped the country under trying circumstances. They included Duma Ndhlovu, Nat Serache, Boy Matthews Nonyang and Wiseman Khuzwayo.

                                  -125-

Those who remained – including Juby Mayet, Zwelakhe Sisulu, Philip Mthimkulu, Joe Thloloe, Charles Nqakula, Rashid Seria, this correspondent and many others – vowed to continue the struggle. We committed ourselves in the belief that there could be no Press freedom in South Africa as long as the society in which we lived was not free. But the regime was also determined to make life difficult for us.

In July 1977, when we scheduled to hold a gathering of former UBJ members in Port Elizabeth to chart our future course of action – the regime banned our gathering and prohibited us from travelling to Port Elizabeth. But being determined to take on the regime head-on we quickly re-scheduled our meeting to be held at the Starlite Hotel in Verulam, about 25km north of Durban.

Unknown to us the dreaded Security Police tapped our telephone conversations and had the Starlite Hotel in Verulam bugged. The Security Police were listening to the entire proceedings of our meeting and immediately decided that we were a bunch of “media terrorists” who should be taken out of society.

At our meeting we decided to establish our own daily and weekly newspapers and a news agency because we were of the firm belief that the

                               -126-

establishment media was not catering for the majority. The establishment media of that era, as you have already been informed, was aimed at protecting and promoting the privileges of the minority.

But, sadly we did not have the resources to embark on such ambitious projects. Nevertheless, many of us who became frustrated with the establishment media began to make arrangements for the establishment of regional newspapers that would provide an alternative voice to the mainstream media and the National Party-controlled SABC.

But resistance led to more repression. In June 1980 when school children all over the country boycotted classes against the unequal and inferior education system for children of the majority, the security police once again targeted journalists. They detained many of us for lengthy periods, claiming that the journalists had been encouraging the children to boycott classes.

Zwelakhe Sisulu was during that period of repression detained for nearly two years. In Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, East London and other centres – black journalists continued to work with the community in an attempt to establish alternative newspapers.

                                   -127-

In Durban, the Press Trust of South Africa Third World News Agency was established as one of the first moves to provide the outside world with accurate information about the situation in South Africa. The news agency was established to operate alongside the running of the alternative newspaper, UKUSA.

But just when the newspaper was set to start publishing with the blessing of the community, the state struck again and banned its Managing Editor – this correspondent; and also Zwelakhe Sisulu, Joe Thloloe, Philip Mthimkulu, Mathatha Tsedu and Charles Nqakula in December 1980.

This was a massive blow for the alternative media because all the journalists were fully involved in the various projects.

Some of the publications that they were involved in were UKUSA in Durban, Grassroots in Cape Town, Speak in Johannesburg and Umthonyama in Port Elizabeth. The South African Council of Churches also sponsored the publication of a newspaper

                                   -128-

called The Voice. Philip Mthimkulu and Juby Mayet worked for this newspaper before they were banned.

Despite being classified as “agitators”, “activists” and “terrorists”, Zwelakhe Sisulu, Philip Mthimkulu, Juby Mayet, Mono Badela, Mathatha Tsedu, Thami Mazwai, Rashid Seria, Enoch Duma, Joe Thloloe and I received the support of the progressive forces from inside and outside the country.

 

              

 

 

 

                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                  -129-

 

SOLIDARITY SUPPORT FROM SOUTH AFRICAN COUNCIL OF CHURCHES, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AND EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY

 

The South African Council of Churches, which was headed by Bishop Desmond Tutu at that time, wrote this letter to all the banned and house-arrested media people:

 

                                -130-

Bishop Tutu, who later became the Archbishop of the Anglican Church, wrote the letter on March 2 1981.

He wrote: “Dear Mr Subramoney,

“I have been instructed by the Executive

Committee of the South African Council of Churches meeting in Johannesburg from Feb 23 – 25 to send the following resolution:

“That this Executive Meeting, noting with grave concern:

“a). the closure of Post (Transvaal) and Sunday Post;

“b) the banning of five Black journalists, all of whom were executive members of the Media Workers’ Association of South Africa (MWASA);

“And further, realising that this action is not only part and parcel of the so-called “total strategy” but also a serious attempt to silence the Black voice in the country, condemns the Government’s action as unchristian and totally out of step with the accepted principles of the civilised world with regard to the freedom of the press, speech and the individual.

“God bless you richly.

“Yours sincerely

“Bishop Desmond Tutu

“General Secretary.”

                                  -131-

All of us banned journalists were adopted by the different chapters of Amnesty International in most parts of Europe. I was adopted by the Edinburgh branch of Amnesty International.

 

 

 

                             -132-

 

This was their initial response after they took up my struggles against the bannings we journalists suffered:  

                                       -133-

This letter was sent to the then Prime Minister of South Africa, Mr PW Botha.

It read: “Your Excellency,

“I wish to express my concern to you about violations of human rights in South Africa. In particular, I wish to draw your attention to the case of Mr Marimuthu Subramoney. Without charge or trial, he was placed under a three-year banning order in December 1980. He has been restricted to his local district on weekdays, and to his house every evening and weekend. He cannot enter any industrial complex, harbour area, educational institution or newspaper office. He is allowed few visitors. He is not allowed to publish anything, and so cannot continue his occupation as a journalist.

“It is because Mr Subramoney has committed no crime, and has never used or advocated violence, that I believe his banning constitutes a grave abuse of human rights. This can only damage the good name of your country in the eyes of the world. I must appeal to you to lift the banning order on Mr Subramoney, to end the use of banning as a means of repression, and to introduce genuine respect for the fundamental human rights of all South

Africans. “Yours sincerely

“Secretary,

“Edinburgh branch, “Amnesty International.”

 

                                   -134-

 

Two activists in Edinburgh, Mr Ritchie Walker, and his wife, Mrs Margaret Walker, were the people who readily adopted me as a “prisoner of conscience” and highlighted my situation.

Amnesty International members in Edinburgh also signed a petition of more than 1 000 people and handed it to the South African Embassy in London.

 

(Mrs Margaret Walker – left – with two of her Edinburgh Amnesty International colleagues in front of the South African Embassy in London in 1982.)

 

This was an article published by the Star on July 8 1982:

 

 

                                    -135-

Under the headline, “Lift ban, 1000 urge the PM”, the Star newspaper’s Bureau in London, reported:

“London – About 1000 copies of a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr P W Botha, asking him to lift a banning order on former Durban journalist, Mr Marimuthu Subramoney, were handed in at the

                                  -136-

South African Embassy in London this week.

“The letters are signed by MPs, bishops and staff members and students at Edinburgh University. They are part of a campaign organised by the Edinburgh branch of the British section of Amnesty International.

“The branch adopted Mr Subramoney as a ‘prisoner of conscience’ in 1981, and has worked to raise support for him in Britain.

“It enlisted the support of Mr Roy Jenkins, Mr David Owen and Mrs Shirley Williams of the Social Democratic Party; Mr David Steel, leader of the Liberal Party; Mr Edward Heath of the Conservative Party; and Mr Len Murray, secretary of the Trade Union Congress.

“The delegation which handed on the letters was led by Mr David Bendix, an Edinburgh University student.

“The letters express concern at violations of human rights in South Africa and they say banning of Mr Subramoney could only damage ‘the good name of your country’.

They say Mr Subramoney has committed no crime and not advocated violence.

“The letters appeal to Mr Botha to end the use of banning as a ‘means of repression’ and introduce respect for the fundamental human rights of all South Africans.”

                                      -137-

The University of Edinburgh had also taken up my case and highlighted the lives of banned people in South Africa through various programmes. In one programme, the students nominated me for the position of Rector in order to highlight the situation of house-arrested and restricted persons in South Africa under the rule of the white minority regime.

Here are some of the articles that were written about this programme:

                                   -138-

One organisation, Index on Censorship, worked with the Edinburgh branch of Amnesty International to highlight my restricted life during the banning. The Editor of the Index on Censorship newspaper, John Martin, wrote a lengthy article on October 15 1981 on my situation under the headline: “Living the life of the silenced”.

                             

 

 

 

 

                            -139-

 

After writing about my letters to the Edinburgh branch of Amnesty International, Martin wrote:

“Subramoney, 35, had just become editor of the newly established Press Trust of South Africa and was editor-designate of a new Black newspaper, UKUSA, when he was banned in December 1980.

“Just before the banning order was served, Subramoney, who was also a regular correspondent for BBC Africa Service, was interviewed by a visiting BBC staff reporter. He said that he had just received an early morning visit from two members of the Durban Security Branch. They wanted personal details about himself and his family. They asked which room he slept in, how he got to work and by which route. No charges were made, but Subramoney told the BBC man: ‘I don’t think I have got much time left’.

“He was banned within a matter of days.

“Subramoney cannot be employed as a journalist until December 1983, when the banning order expires; even then, he cannot be sure that the order will not be extended.

“As well as confining him to his house for most of the week, the order bans him from entering any industrial compex, harbour area, educational institution or newspaper office, which gravely limits Subramoney’s already bleak prospects of

                                   -140-

 

employment.

“The only place he may move beyond his own suburb is the largely white commercial centre of Durban, where he has tried to get jobs with banks and commercial firms.

“In one letter, he writes: ‘Barclays Bank, Standard

Bank, Unilever and several others turned me down as soon as they heard I was banned.’

“The only visitors he is permitted to receive are his two married sisters and his brothers-in-law.”

In another letter, Subramoney says his Press Trust aimed to supply ‘alternative news’ which other agencies did not record. And in his interview with the BBC, he said: ‘We are not trying to slant the news or reflect discredit on the Government but we are trying to give a Black perspective. We feel that Blacks in this country have been neglected for far too long. We look at what led up to an event, and this, the South African Government feels, is not in their best interests. They are worried that our news is having an effect on their friends overseas.’

“The banning order may have caused the death of Subramoney’s third child early this year, a few weeks after his ban came into force the six-month-old boy fell ill. When the doctor came he advised that the child, Vishen, be taken to hospital. It was

                                    -141-   

 

6:50pm, just 10 minutes before Subramoney’s personal curfew came into effect: however, he was                                                                             

the only member of the family with a driving licence; so he rang the local police station to request a temporary relaxation of his house arrest on compassionate grounds.                         

“The police refused. Subramoney’s wife ran to the home of their immediate neighbour. Late that evening a magistrate agreed an exception could be made to the house arrest order.

“The sick child was driven to hospital, but died early the following morning. In one of his letters Subramoney said he had not been told the cause of death, but he understood it was as a result of respiratory problems.

“In another letter to the Amnesty group in Edinburgh, he says that on July 3 three White policemen raided his home and made a two-hour search. They took away books and some documents brought home from her office by his wife, Thyna. Subsequently he was informed that the police were considering prosecuting him for possession of banned books.

“ ‘It seems they are bent on intimidating and harassing me. I take solace from the fact that thousands of other people are in the same position and that people like the Black leader Nelson

                                  -142-

 

Mandela are imprisoned on Robben Island for life; my incarceration, small by comparison, is part of my contribution to the liberation struggle’.

“Members of Amnesty in Scotland would like to help Subramoney. We do not share all his views, but there is no doubt about his ability, dedication

and courage.

“We would be glad to hear from anyobody who can suggest ways of helping: you can find us in the telephone directory.

“Meanwhile, Thyna Subramoney is attempting to carry on the work of the Press Trust, as well as bring up her surviving children, Pregarsen (7) and Seshini (3).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                               

                                        -143-

(Mrs Thyna Subramoney at work in the Press Trust office in Durban in the 1980s.)

 

“She has some help, but they are all inexperienced and the enterprise is in financial difficulties.

“Subramoney feels that it is important for the South African Government that the Press Trust, and other similar Black ventures in journalism succeed.

                                     -144-

 

“ ‘If they do allow alternative news agencies, at

least they will know what we Black people think. It would be in their interest to allow us to continue. I don’t think they will allow it’.”

“The last communication with Subramoney was by phone on October 3. He was very cagey in his conversation with the Amnesty caller from Edinburgh, but on one matter, at least, he was firm: ‘Don’t forget me. Publicise my case’.”

The Edinburgh branch of Amnesty International, which had adopted me as prisoner of conscience early in 1981, also supported efforts by members at the University of Edinburgh to highlight the plight of banned people in South Africa.

One of its senior officials, Lucy Nokes, wrote a lengthy article under the headline, “Support Subry”, and had it published in one of the local newspapers.

This was what she published:

“When we read about public heroes such as Lech Walesa or the Sakharovs we tend to forget that such people are not a race apart, endowed with some special psychological makeup which renders them somehow braver than the rest of us.

“Most of us duly admire these people, but of course admiration alone has never really got anybody out

                                 -145-

 

of trouble. Amnesty International uses peaceful and diplomatic methods to provide concrete aid to

prisoners of conscience: here is just one of the

cases that the Edinburgh University group is dealing with at present.

“Marimuthu Subramoney, then, is a fallible human being like the rest of us, who realised that he could not compromise with the politics in his country of South Africa.

“Subramoney, Subry to his friends, was an influential Black South African journalist who has now been banned by the authorities. Subry’s main ‘crimes’ were twofold:

“ *He started up the first independent South African news agency called the Press Trust of South Africa. Through his agency Subry became a regular correspondent for BBC Africa Service.

·       There are two types of unions in South Africa. Regulated unions are white-controlled and do little for non-white members. In recent years ‘unregistered’ unions have grown up independently and one of these is the Media Workers Association of South Africa. Subry became vice-president of this union.

“In 1980 the MWASA led a strike in order to get union recognition from the two main newspaper

                                -146-

 

publishers. After eight weeks the strike ended in victory for the union.

“When the Edinburgh University group heard of this last year they worked out a clever way of giving Subry support: they put him up as a

candidate in the elections for a new Rector of the university.

“In an expression of sympathy and solidarity, 10 percent of the students gave Subry their vote. All of the other electoral candidates, including David Steel, lent Subry their support, and David Steel agreed to go along to the South African Embassy with 1000 letters of support for Subry which had been signed by the students, University staff and a sprinkling of stars such as Shirley Williams, Dame Judith Hart, David Owen and other MPs.

“However, the Embassy flatly refused to receive Steel, saying what they did was their own business.

“Not to be deterred, the Amnesty group decided that a delegation would go along to the Embassy in the summer holidays and try their luck on the off chance.

“On the assigned date the party arrived outside the Embassy – a David Bendix, a third year student, Margaret Walker and Frances Crook, an Amnesty official. Bendix spoke to the guard

                                   -147-                                                 

 

through an intercom and a pregnant pause ensued, after which they were allowed to enter

the building.

“Once inside, there was another strained silence as the receptionist figured out just who the party  

ought to see. Finally, the information attache was sent for.

“This man’s tactics were to remain quite silent, volunteering no information at all, whilst the group came out with their party-piece on human rights, free speech etc.

“After this, the attache graciously accepted the 1000 letters from various people enquiring after Subry.

“So, was there any point in this visit at all? The whole thing may sound rather futile and quite probably the 1000 letters went straight into an incinerator. Well, yes, it was a success for two reasons:

·       - few groups manage to get protests into the South African embassy, but the Amnesty group used decorum and a superficial politeness as an effective weapon. By playing the authorities at their own game they managed to score a few points!

·       The incident was reported in two newspapers

                                 -148-

 

in South Africa and Subry himself has written of the psychological boost that this has given to himself and his sympathisers.

“At this very moment Subry is being harassed by the South Africa police, so it is important that the campaign continues, for a government will go to great lengths to avoid being embarrassed,

and the South African authorities will not harm Subry if they know that the eyes of the world are upon him.

“Students could therefore write letters in support of Subry to the South African embassy or the government – the more letters that they receive, the more pressured they will feel, and the less inclined to renew his banning orders. – Lucy Nokes’.

In November 1982, just about two years after my banning, one prominent journalist, Fred Bridgland, working for the Edinburgh newspaper, Scotsman, also interacted with me and the Edinburgh branch of Amnesty International about my situation as a banned person.

 

 

 

 

                                         -149-

 

                                                                      --

                              -150-

He published an article under the headline, “Unperson in a White man’s world” and a sub-headline, “Fred Bridgland on the plight of one of South Africa’s banned persons”.

Bridgland introduced his article by stating that Sri Lankan cricketers, who were visiting South Africa at that time against the wishes of the local anti-apartheid organisations, had been bestowed with -- 

honorary white status during their visit.

He wrote that the ironies of the riches and status given to the Sri Lankans by South Africa’s Whites “will not be lost on Marimuthu Subramoney, a leading South African journalist who was banned

and house arrested in December 1980”.

He referred to my years at the Daily News since early 1973, my reporting for foreign radio stations such as the BBC Africa Service and Radio Deutsche Welle, and my involvement in the establishment of the Press Trust of SA news agency and the new newspaper, UKUSA, in December 1980.

He went onto to write about the frustrations of banned people and disclosed that the Scottish Amnesty International group “began corresponding with the banned journalist in June 1981”.

                                   -151-

 

The following is what he wrote:

“The first letter from Subramoney described how

he had applied for clerical jobs with Barclays Bank, Standard Bank and Unilever in Durban and how they all turned him down when they heard of his banning order.

“Subsequent letters described police raids on his house to take away books and papers, and the tragic death of his youngest child, six-month-old Vishen.

“The Press Trust continued to function, run by

Subramoney’s wife, Thyna.

“A September 1981 letter described two visits by security police to the Press Trust office. They questioned one of the reporters, Neil Lewis, who is

also a trade union official, and suggested he look for another job or stay with Press Trust and supply them with information. Lewis refused to comply.

“In December 1981 Subramoney thanked Amnesty International for sending him a cutting of an article which had appeared in The Scotsman about his plight. The letter also contained bad news: ‘On November 19 one of my personal buddies, a committee member of the Press Trust and of the black newspaper I was about to start, was assassinated in a brutal fashion. 

   

                              -152-

 

“The murder victim, Griffith Mxenge, seems to have been an exceptional man. He had struggled across the obstacles of the apartheid system to become a trial lawyer specialising in the defence of political dissidents.

“At his funeral at the weekend – which I was prohibited from attending because of my banning – more than 20 000 people gave him a hero’s farewell. It is not yet known who is responsible for his death but the Black people are convinced that his death was the work of the ‘system’.

 

 

 

 

                             

                                -153-

(Interviewing one of the struggle activists, Florence Mkhize, in the office of Griffith Mxenge in the former “Little India” in Durban. Mrs Mkhize who was resident in Lamontville in Durban was one of the tireless activists at that time. She was closely involved with Griffith Mxenge, Archie Gumede, and other stalwarts.)

 

“In April this year came another visit to his home by three security policemen who questioned him about the Press Trust and warned him that his banning order could be extended for another five years. By now Subramoney had started studying for a degree by correspondence course.

“A letter in June said that another four journalist friends – two Asians, Quraish Patel and Vas Soni, and two Blacks, Joe Thloloe and Mathatha Tsedu – had been detained under the security laws. In July his frustration spilt over. He had taken a part-time job selling insurance. ‘Insurance selling is not my

                                  

 

                              -154-

cup of tea. I took it on to keep me busy, but I am -        

pretty fed up. It is a great pity that people like me are not given the freedom of movement and speech to challenge these facists’.

“In August, Subramoney demonstrated that he is either a humourist or a wild-eyed optimist. He said he had asked the Justice Minister, Mr H. J. Coetzee, to relax his banning order so that he could attend a ‘Third World communications conference’ in Nairobi in September. In the same month he wrote that the request had been turned down, and he went on: ‘I just cannot understand the mentality of these people. I have not done anything subversive or terroristic, yet I am branded as a communist, terrorist, a threat to the state and subversive. I have not been taken to court and charged, but yet I have been sentenced to ‘prison’ before being found guilty.

“A letter of September 23 said security police had again visited the Press Trust and told Neil Lewis that he could expect a banning order soon.

“The latest letter, in October, told of another security police visit to Subramoney’s new home, to which he had moved to get away from pressures of the extended family. The security police said he should not have moved without permission from the Law and Order Minister, Mr Louis Le Grange.

                              

                                -155-

 

They expected him to have obtained retrospective permission by the time of their next visit. They also told Thyna to look for new premises for the Press

Trust because its office was in a White area.

“Subramoney’s final words in this letter were: ‘Have you got any suggestions for me. I am getting desperate’.

“When Sri Lanka’s cricketers finally depart for home their presence will have made no difference to Subramoney. They will still be honorary Whites. He will still be a banned person and probability, going on past evidence of the application of the Security Act, is that the ban will be renewed for another two to five years when it expires in December 1983.”

While progressive forces outside the country had taken up my case, the denial of my human rights by the apartheid regime was causing me a great deal of stress and pain.

DEATH OF SON

In the second month after my banning, our three-month-old baby boy, Vishen, became very ill and I could not take him to hospital one evening. My banning order restricted me from leaving home between 7pm and 6am. When I telephoned the Verulam Police Station for permission to take my son to hospital, the police officer who answered

                             -156-

 

the phone said he could not grant me permission to break my banning order.

My wife, Thyna, meanwhile, ran to our neighbour’s home for help. Mr Anand Punchee, a school teacher, and his wife assisted us and rushed my wife and the ailing child to St Aidan’s Hospital in central Durban.

Here my baby was treated for a few days but he succumbed to his ailment.

The death of our baby boy highlighted the oppressive manner in which the regime treated those who were at that time fighting for a just, democratic and non-racial society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                    -157-

                                     -158-

-

(Archbishop Denis Hurley of the Catholic Church in Durban came to our support when we were banned in 1980. This photo shows me interviewing the Archbishop at his office sometime in 1995 when I joined the SABC.)

 

The Catholic Church under the leadership of Archbishop Denis Hurley, who I had interviewed several times while I was working at the Daily News and also sometime after 1995 when I joined the SABC, sent me and my wife, Thyna, a letter on April 7 1981 expressing the church’s condolences and support.

The letter was written by the church’s Commission for Justice and Reconciliation.

 

-159-

   

 

                                -160-

 

The letter, dated April 7 1981, read: “Dear Mr and Mrs Subramoney.

“On behalf of the Justice and Reconciliation Commission of the Catholic Archdiocese of Durban I would like to express to you our sincere sympathy on the death of your son last month.

“The Commission deplores the restrictions placed on your freedom of movement by the government and particularly the lack of compassion shown at the time of the illness of your child.

“Be assured of our prayerful support for you and your family in your time of sorrow.

“Yours sincerely

Louise Goemans

J and R Worker”.

 

The local newspapers and even the media in Edinburgh and the UK in general published several articles about the problems we encountered when our child took ill two months after I was banned.

My former newspaper, The Daily News, in Durban published the following article under the headline: “Banned man’s baby son dies” in February 1981.

                                   -161-

                              -162-

 

“ABHORRENT NATURE OF BANNING ORDERS”

 

“The arbitrary conditions of banning orders were attacked this week after banned Natal journalist, Marimuthu Subramoney’s five-month-old son died when he was unable to break his restrictions to take the boy to hospital.

“The baby, Vishen, third child of the Subramoneys, died at St Aidan’s Hospital in Durban a day after he was admitted.

“The baby boy suffered the first convulsions on Monday night. His departure to the hospital was delayed by red tape while Mr Subramoney, battled frantically with Verulam police to get permission to travel to the city after his restricted time of 7pm.

“His wife, Thyna Subramoney, said the local station commander said he did not have the power to permit her husband to travel to the city and suggested that Mr Subramoney contact a magistrate.

“A magistrate gave Mr Subramoney permission on condition he reported after the trip to the Verulam police.

“By this time the baby’s condition worsened and our neighbour rushed me to hospital,” Mrs Subramoney said.

                                   -163-

“The baby suffered the second convulsions on Wednesday.

“A funeral attended by 100 mourners was held at their Mimosa Road, Lotusville home on Thursday.

“Professor J D van der Vyver of law at the University of the Witwatersrand and vice-president of the Lawyers Human Rights Association, said: “This emphasises again the abhorrent nature of banning orders.

“Although provision is made in the Internal Security Act and the Riotous Assemblies Act for permission to contravene the banning order, the red tape attached to acquiring such permission may make such exceptions meaningless. This is dramatically illustrated by the facts of the present case.

“Mr Subramoney’s case highlights the fact that the State officials, when issuing banning orders, are not particularly meticulous in selecting the words that would restrict the freedom of the person involved. It is appalling.”

“Mrs Joyce Harris, national president of the Black Sash, agreed.

“It is really horrifying. There is absolutely nothing to condone this indiscriminate arbitrary banning. This case is tragic, and it serves only to highlight the horror of banning orders in general.”

                            

        

                        -164-

 

“ABHORRENT NATURE OF BANNING ORDERS”

 

“The arbitrary conditions of banning orders were attacked this week after banned Natal journalist, Marimuthu Subramoney’s five-month-old son died when he was unable to break his restrictions to take the boy to hospital.

“The baby, Vishen, third child of the Subramoneys, died at St Aidan’s Hospital in Durban a day after he was admitted.

“The baby boy suffered the first convulsions on Monday night. His departure to the hospital was delayed by red tape while Mr Subramoney, battled frantically with Verulam police to get permission to travel to the city after his restricted time of 7pm.

“His wife, Thyna Subramoney, said the local station commander said he did not have the power to permit her husband to travel to the city and suggested that Mr Subramoney contact a magistrate.

“A magistrate gave Mr Subramoney permission on condition he reported after the trip to the Verulam police.

“By this time the baby’s condition worsened and our neighbour rushed me to hospital,” Mrs

                                   -165-

Subramoney said.

“The baby suffered the second convulsions on Wednesday.

“A funeral attended by 100 mourners was held at their Mimosa Road, Lotusville home on Thursday.

“Professor J D van der Vyver of law at the University of the Witwatersrand and vice-president of the Lawyers Human Rights Association, said: “This emphasises again the abhorrent nature of banning orders.

“Although provision is made in the Internal Security Act and the Riotous Assemblies Act for permission to contravene the banning order, the red tape attached to acquiring such permission may make such exceptions meaningless. This is dramatically illustrated by the facts of the present case.

“Mr Subramoney’s case highlights the fact that the State officials, when issuing banning orders, are not particularly meticulous in selecting the words that would restrict the freedom of the person involved. It is appalling.”

“Mrs Joyce Harris, national president of the Black Sash, agreed.

“It is really horrifying. There is absolutely nothing to condone this indiscriminate arbitrary banning. This case is tragic, and it serves only to highlight the horror of banning orders in general.”

                            

                               -166-

 

VISITING WINNIE MANDELA IN BRANDFORT AFTER BANNING ORDERS LIFTED IN MID 1983

 

In June 1983, the apartheid regime, faced with overwhelming campaigns against it by anti-apartheid organisations both inside and outside the country, lifted my banning orders and those of a number of political activists. They included leaders of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) such as Mewa Ramgobin, M J Naidoo, George Sewpersadh and Paul Devadas David.

This came as a surprise development because most of our banning orders were to have expired in December 1983 and thereafter.

A few days after our banning orders were lifted, Mewa Ramgobin informed me that they had decided to travel to Brandfort in the Free State province to visit Mrs Winnie Mandela. Mrs Mandela, wife of the jailed freedom icon Nelson Mandela at that time, was banished to the Free State town from her home in Soweto in Johannesburg. Here she was banned and restricted and denied any visitors.

But Mewa, M J Naidoo, Paul David and George

                                   -167-

Sewpersadh made a unanimous decision that they

wanted to visit Mrs Mandela to discuss the

political struggles and the road ahead.

 

 

(George Sewpersadh, Mewa Ramgobin, M J Naidoo meeting with Mrs Winnie Mandela outside her home in Brandfort in the Free State in June 1983 after our banning orders were lifted.)

 

The four Congress leaders invited me to join them in the trip to Brandfort, which is a small rural town in the Free State province of the country.

Mr M J Naidoo used his car and the five of us left in the early hours of the morning to Brandfort. We arrived at about 12 noon.

Mrs Mandela first looked at us and was surprised to see us outside her small house.

She recognised Mewa and the rest of the gang and

                                    -168-

 

readily welcomed us to her home despite the fact that she was not allowed to receive visitors without the permission of the security police.

(Mrs Winnie Mandela talking to us in the lounge of her house in Brandfort in the Free State province in June 1983.)

 

We sat down and was caught up in discussions about the struggles of the people and the repressive actions of the apartheid regime in an attempt to crush the movement for democracy and liberation.

While Mewa and his fellow comrades were busy chatting away and obtaining all the information they needed, I was busy taking down notes and

                                  -169-

 

photographs of the historic occasion.

We spent about three hours with Mrs Mandela before driving back to Durban.

I clearly recall the words of advice that Mrs

Mandela gave us before we departed:

“Don’t worry comrades. You now have the freedom to continue with the struggles until Madiba and our other leaders are released and until we gain our liberation.”

(Mrs Mandela talking to us – M J Naidoo, George Sewpersadh, Mewa Ramgobin, Paul David and Subry Govender at her home in Brandfort in the Free State in June 1983.)

 

 

 

                                   -170-

 

“BANNING! I WOULD NOT WISH IT ON PW BOTHA, SAYS SUBRAMONEY”

 

 

When we returned home, I was contacted by journalist colleague, Dennis Pather, who was editor of the Post newspaper at that time. He asked me to write an article about the lifting of the banning order. I wrote an article that was published under the headline:

“BANNING: I would not wish it on PW Botha, says Subramoney” and the following introduction: “Durban journalist Marimuthu Subramoney was served with a banning order on December 29 1980. For the past two and half years he has lived in the twilight world of South Africa’s banned. Last week

                                -171-

his banning was lifted. TODAY he tells his story for the first time…”

“When on the morning of December 29, 1980, two White Special Branch members of the South African Police called at the offices of the newly-established Ukusa newspaper and the Press Trust of South Africa News Agency to serve a three-year banning order on me, the severity of the system did not affect me immediately.

“Before that date I had not known what it was like to be a banned and house-arrested person. Being a journalist, I had only reported about the imposition of banning orders on other people and the denial of their “freedom” of movement, speech and assembly.

“Even when one of the security policeman told a colleague, Quarish Patel, who was in the office at that time, that he should explain the implications of the banning order to me, I did not take the comment seriously.

“But I soon realised the full impact of the order when I read the details and found that I was not only prevented from continuing with my work as a journalist, but also house-arrested every weekday from 7pm to 6am, and on weekends and public holidays.

“In addition, I was not allowed to enter newspaper offices, the lifeblood of my work, and prevented

                                    -172-

from receiving any visitors whatsoever, except for three close relatives and my doctor.

“Within a matter of a few months I began to realise that the banning order was not only taking its toll on my meagre resources but my family life was beginning to show strains. Not being able to visit relatives, friends and journalist colleagues and attend weddings, public meetings and Federation soccer matches was beginning to cramp my family and myself.

“The prospect of the security police paying a surprise visit to our home was also an unnerving experience for the whole family – mainly for my four-year-old daughter, Seshini, who once fell asleep with fright on the sitting-room couch after one of their visits.

“But above all, being prevented from pursuing my career was a constant frustration – especially with so many events just passing me by.

“I soon found that for a journalist the banning order is the most de-humanising trick the authorities can pull on you.

“While a banned doctor, lawyer, insurance salesman, lecturer or a clerk is allowed to continue with his or her work, a journalist is simply robbed of his occupation and made to pay the price for being the ‘eyes and ears’ of the community.

“I found solace, however, in the thousands of ‘good

                                      -173-

 

wishes’ cards that were sent by sympathisers from Holland, France, Belgium, West Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden and Austria – all Western countries.

“I also found solace in the stream of letters I received from members of the Edinburgh branch of Amnesty International who had ‘adopted’ me as a “prisoner of conscience” in an attempt to highlight the position of the silenced and restricted person in South Africa.

“Their concern was a regular reminder that the banned person had not been forgotten.

“But now, two-and-half years later, the South African Government has suddenly lifted the banning order of some 55, including myself, in terms of the new Internal Security Act of 1982.

“There is no doubt that I am relieved at this new found ‘freedom’ – but it is still a mystery to me why I was banned in the first place. Being robbed of two-and-half years of your life at the peak of your career by an administrative action is a travesty of justice and complete disregard for the rule of law.

“It is going to take some time to reorientate myself because after being disorientated for so long, it is simply not easy to get back into the ‘groove of things’.

“But, in spite of the unjust incarceration, I would

                               -174-

not want to wish banning and restriction on anyone – even PW Botha.

“I bear no malice or grudge against anyone except the system which forces good men to turn to evil methods to silence their critics.

“I only want to be allowed to continue with my work as a journalist so that I can contribute to the undoing of the social, economic and political injustices so rife in South Africa.”

After the lifting of our banning orders, I went on to establish two local community newspapers while at the same time working for foreign radio stations and news agencies. With the help of the Natal Indian Congress leader, Mewa Ramgobin, I first launched the Guardian newspaper and thereafter until the end of the 1980s, the North Coast Times. These newspapers were published in my home town of Verulam and distributed in towns such as Tongaat, Stanger, and Phoenix. I used the newspapers to cover local developments while at the same time promoting the struggles of the Natal Indian Congress, the United Democratic Front and anti-apartheid sports organisations and leaders. I stopped publishing these newspapers in early 1990 following the lack of funds. I instead concentrated

my efforts in working for foreign radio stations, the Press Trust of India and other foreign media organisations.

 

                                      -175-

 

       “THE MAN WITH NO PASSPORT”

 

During the 1970s and 1980s, the apartheid regime not only employed its restrictive policies to silence me but also denied me the opportunity to take up scholarships in the United Kingdom and in

                             -176-

Germany. After my banning order was lifted in June 1983, I was invited by several international organisations to undergo training at their institutions. But the White National Party Government at that time refused to make any concessions.

 

                                  -177-

Sometime in late 1981, I was invited to attend a media conference in Nairobi in Kenya. But my applications to the then Minister of Louis Le Grange, were turned down without any reasons being given.

 

Two specific invitations stand out. In 1986 and 1987 I was offered a scholarship to do my post graduate studies in International Politics and Relations at the University of Edinburgh and in 1988 I was once again offered a scholarship to work for one year at Radio Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany) in Koln.

But the Minister of Home Affairs at that time,

                                      

                              -178-

 

Stoffel Botha, refused to oblige and point blankly told me not to waste their time in applying for a passport again.

 

Several journalist colleagues locally and nationally wrote about my situation during the 1980s when the apartheid regime refused to grant me a passport.

One of my colleagues at the Sunday Tribune at that time, Denyse Armour, wrote this story about the Minister’s refusal to grant me a passport to take up the scholarships. The story was published on August 2 1986 under the headline: “Newsman can’t accept dream overseas scholarship”.

 

 

                    -179-

 

NEWSMAN CAN’T ACCEPT DREAM OVERSEAS SCHOLARSHIP

 

“A journalist has been refused a passport for the seventh time in three years, forcing him to give up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to accept an overseas scholarship.

“Marimuthu Subramoney, managing editor of a Durban-based independent news agency, the Press Trust of South Africa, was offered a two-year scholarship to study African Politics and History at the University of Edinburgh in January.

“But his efforts to persuade the Government to give him travel documents have met with blank refusal from the Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Stoffel Botha, and the Prime Minister, Mr P W Botha.

“Neither gave reasons for turning down his application.

“Mr Subramoney, 39, was banned and placed under house arrest for more than two years in 1980. Since the expiry of his banning order in mid-1983, Mr Subramoney has repeatedly applied to obtain a passport.

“After being offered a place in the University of -             

                                   -180-

Edinburgh’s Social Science Department in January this year, Mr Subramoney and the university tried to persuade Stoffel Botha to grant him permission to accept the scholarship.

“It’s so frustrating. I’m getting on in years and this sort of opportunity won’t come again. If I am to accept the scholarship, I must be in Edinburgh next month.

“I was looking forward to studying in Edinburgh because it would have given me an opportunity to broaden my knowledge in International Politics – a subject I have specialised in,” said Mr Subramoney.

“Colin Eglin, the leader of the Progressive Federal Party, the British Embassy in Pretoria and the International Press Institute have all approached the State President, Mr PW Botha, independently in their attempts to get him to give Mr Subramoney a passport.

“Mr Subramoney is a foreign correspondent for several American, European, New Zealand and African radio stations.”

 

 

 

 

 

                                    -181-

 

 

 

 

 

                                 -182-

 

 

       

 

 

 

 

                               -183-

 

“PASSPORT ISSUED IN ERROR WITHDRAWN”

 

But despite the totalitarian standpoint of the Minister, I continued to make applications for a passport at the Department of Home Affairs in Durban. I don’t know what the development was but in December 1986 I was granted a passport. This would have allowed me to take up my scholarship in Edinburgh.

I was overjoyed. But my mistake was that I informed some people that I would be leaving for Edinburgh soon as I managed to obtain a passport. This was another error on my part. The first was when I resigned from the Daily News in December 1980 and informed an editor in Johannesburg about my resignation.

Now this information about my passport being granted reached the security police in Durban.

Two members of the security police visited our offices at Escoval House in Smith Street and handed me a letter to inform me that my passport had been withdrawn.

 

 

                                       -184-

 

 

The letter, dated December 29 1986, was written by the Director General of the Department of Home Affairs in Pretoria.

 

                                    -185-

The letter was addressed to me and read:

“Sir

“NOTICE OF WITHDRAWAL OF SOUTH AFRICAN PASSPORT

“I am directed to inform you that the Minister of Home Affairs has in terms of paragraph 1 of the Conditions of Issue of South African passports, decided to withdraw with immediate effect South African passport no DA325208 which was issued in your favour. The passport has therefore ceased to be a valid document for the purposes of the Departure from the Union Regulation Act, No 34 of 1955.

“You are called upon to surrender the afore mentioned document immediately to the officer serving this notice on you.

Yours faithfully

Director General”.

This latest development was covered by several newspapers in Durban and nationally in January 1987 under the headlines: “Durban journalist’s passport withdrawn”, “Passport issued in error”, “Passport issued, then withdrawn”, and “Erroneously issued passport withdrawn”.

 

 

 

                               -186-

                            -187-

Despite the latest “Stalinist” attitude of the Pretoria regime, I continued to make representations through the assistance of a number of local progressive political leaders and the foreign embassies of Germany and Britain in 1988. This time I had stepped up my efforts after I was granted a two-year scholarship by the German Government to work at Radio Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany).

During my efforts, I was informed that the apartheid regime was not prepared to respond to my representations but the officials would be ready to grant me a “one-way exit permit” if I was prepared to leave the country for good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                             -188-

One of the journalists who captured this in March 1988 was Fawzia Moodley, who worked for the Leader newspaper at this time. Fawzia later joined me and colleagues, Neil Lewis, Deven Maistry, Rob Montgomery, Diane Coetzer at the Press Trust of SA News Agency. There were several other journalists who worked at various periods for

                              -189-

 

PTSA. They included Jabulani Sipho Sikhakhane, Mark Bennett, Skumbuzo Cyril Manyoni, Liz McGregor, and Fiona Ann Crooks. One of South Africa’s well-known academics and authors, Ashwin Desai, also worked for a few months with us at PTSA in early 1982.

Fawzia Moodley’s article was published on March 3 1988 under the headline, “One-way ticket, claims newsman” and sub-headline: “No passport, but police offered”.

The article read:

“The South African authorities, who for years have denied Durban journalist Marimuthu Subramoney a passport to travel abroad, had indicated to him that they were prepared to grant him a one-way (exit) passport within an hour.

“Mr Subramoney, who was recently awarded a two-

year scholarship to get on-the-job training at Radio Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany), is afraid that as in the past when he was given a scholarship to study at Edinburgh University, the government would refuse to grant him a passport.

“The Durban journalist who runs a press agency in the city told ‘The Leader’ this week that although the German Government had undertaken to make representations to the South African Government to grant him a passport, he was not too hopeful

                            -190-

 

that it would succeed.

“Mr Subramoney who also had to forgo opportunities to take up invitations from the Swedish and British Governments, as well as human rights organisations in Europe, United States, and Australia, claimed that he had been told by the authorities that they were prepared to give him “one way ticket” to leave South Africa.

“ ‘What will I do with an exit permit? South Africa is my home and I do not want to leave’, said Mr Subramoney, who is believed to be a target of government action because of his avowed opposition to apartheid.

“Mr Subramoney claimed that in addition to being denied his passport – an action which was a violation of the basic right of freedom of movement – his offices had been regularly raided since the state of emergency was imposed.

“This year alone my offices had been raided three times by the security branch – the latest raid being on February 12.

“He pointed out that despite the constant harassment the State had never laid any charges against him.

“On each occasion the security police confiscated large quantities of documents, cassettes, files and other literature from his offices”, he claimed.

                               -191-

 

“But while he lives in uncertainty about whether he would get a chance to take up the scholarship offer, Mr Subramoney is taking comfort from the fact that there is worldwide support for him and others in his position.

“The Committee to Protect Journalists in London and several of the radio stations to whom he supplies news material have protested to the South African Minister of Police about his continued harassment and to the Minister of Home Affairs for refusing him his passport.

“A spokesperson for the South African Police Public Relations Division in Pretoria said the visiting of the premises was regarded as part of routine police duties and since his office did not comment on such duties, he was not prepared to make enquiries about whether Mr Subramoney’s allegations were true.

“The spokesperson rejected allegations regarding an exit passport for Mr Subramoney, saying that such applications were not dealt with by the police.”

 

 

 

                                

                              -192-

                           -193-

 

In March 1988 when my efforts to obtain a passport showed no success whatsoever, I wrote a letter to two local newspapers and the Guardian newspaper in London about the detrimental actions of the South African government in refusing to grant me a passport.

The Natal Witness based in Pietermaritzburg and the Daily News in Durban published my articles on March 17 and 18 1988 under the headlines: “Two hoots for freedom” and “The man with no passport”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                   -194-

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                    -195-

 

The article read:

“Over the past eight years, during and after the banning and house arrest order imposed on me, I have made more than a dozen applications to the Pretoria authorities for a passport.

“But on every occasion I was denied a passport without any reasons being given in spite of the fact that a wide range of people had made representations on my behalf. Some of the people who made such representations included Mr Wynand Malan, Mr Colin Eglin, Mrs Helen Suzman, Dr Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert, the British Embassy and foreign organisations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York, and the

                            

                            -196-

International Press Institute, based in London.

“In my latest application, which I made on January 8, I specifically informed the authorities that I needed a passport to take up a scholarship granted by the Otto-Beneke Foundation in Bonn for me to undergo “on the job training” at Radio Deutsche Welle in West Germany. My application this time was supported by the West German Embassy in Pretoria and several overseas organisations in West Germany, France, Britain, United States, Holland and Australia.

“But to my shock and horror I was informed by the Minister’s secretary today (March 9) that the Minister had decided against granting me a passport and that the Minister has not given any reason for his decision.

“The same Minister had also denied me travel documents in 1986 and 1987 to take up a two-year scholarship to study International Relations at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

“The denial of a passport to me has coincided with various acts of harassment and intimidation that I have suffered at the hands of the Pretoria authorities over the past 15 years. I have been banned, house-arrested, detained and my mail and telephones have been tapped.

“This harassment and intimidation was stepped up

                        

                                  -197-

 

over the past two years. I cannot understand the attitude of Minister Stoffel Botha in repeatedly denying me a passport because I feel that if he has any reasons for his actions then he should make them known to me. His actions, I believe, run contrary to the eloquent statements by State President Botha and Foreign Minister Pik Botha that in South Africa all citizens enjoy the right to ‘freedom of movement, freedom of association, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech’.

“It seems to me that State President Botha and Foreign Minister Botha should stop pretending that all citizens are allowed their basic rights when Minister Stoffel Botha cannot give reasons for his undemocratic actions.

“If Minister Stoffel Botha believes in the concept of democracy, then he should allow me an opportunity to put my case to him ‘face to face’ rather than take decisions without giving reasons for his actions.

“From its actions it seems that Pretoria cares ‘two hoots’ about the niceties of ‘freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of movement and freedom of assembly’”. – Marimuthu Subramoney, Managing Editor, Press Trust of SA News Agency, Durban.

 

                               -198-

“DO NOT BOTHER AGAIN, EDITOR TOLD AS PASSPORT REFUSED”

                             -199-

 

Then in July 1988 another of my journalist colleagues, Nagoor Bissetty, who was a veteran at the Mercury newspaper, wrote the following article about my passport problems.

“Don’t come back.

“That’s the blunt reply a Durban journalist has received from Minister of Home Affairs, Stoffel Botha, to his latest application for a passport.

“Marimuthu ‘Subry’ Subramoney has been refused travel papers several times in the past eight years. Now Mr Botha has told him not to make representations to him again.

“Mr Subramoney, who is managing editor of the Press Trust of South Africa news agency, says he needs a passport so that he can take up a two-year scholarship at the radio station, Voice of Germany, in Cologne.

“The Minister’s refusal – and reaction – have come as a disappointment, he says.

“Mr Botha’s letter to him, said: ‘I would like to give you my personal assurance that I am not indifferent to your own, as well other, representations.

‘However, at this point in time I am not prepared to deviate from my decision. I must, therefore, inform you that further correspondence on this matter will

 

 

                             -200-

 

Then in July 1988 another of my journalist colleagues, Nagoor Bissetty, who was a veteran at the Mercury newspaper, wrote the following article about my passport problems.

“Don’t come back.

“That’s the blunt reply a Durban journalist has received from Minister of Home Affairs, Stoffel Botha, to his latest application for a passport.

“Marimuthu ‘Subry’ Subramoney has been refused travel papers several times in the past eight years. Now Mr Botha has told him not to make representations to him again.

“Mr Subramoney, who is managing editor of the Press Trust of South Africa news agency, says he needs a passport so that he can take up a two-year scholarship at the radio station, Voice of Germany, in Cologne.

“The Minister’s refusal – and reaction – have come as a disappointment, he says.

“Mr Botha’s letter to him, said: ‘I would like to give you my personal assurance that I am not indifferent to your own, as well other, representations.

‘However, at this point in time I am not prepared to deviate from my decision. I must, therefore, inform you that further correspondence on this matter will

 

                          -201-

 

serve no useful purpose.’

“Mr Subramoney, who was banned for a period from December 1980 to mid-1983, applied in 1984, 1986 and 1987 for a passport to enable him to take up a scholarship at the University of Edinburgh.

“Representations were made to the Government on his behalf by several House of Assembly MPs – including Jan Van Eck, Helen Suzman, Dr Van Zyl Slabbert – and by the governments of West Germany, Britain and the United States, without any success.

‘I feel disappointed, especially in the light of the government’s statements that it is committed to allowing all citizens freedom of movement, association and speech’, he said.”

Despite the crass attitude of the Minister, I made another application in May 1989.  But this was also turned down. This was reported in the local media under the headlines: “No passport for former banned journalist”, and “Journalist refused passport for second time”.

 

 

 

 

 

                             -202-

 

“SUBRAMONEY FINALLY GETS HIS PASSPORT”

 

Then in the second week of December 1989 when reports of negotiations between the apartheid regime and Nelson Mandela emerged in the local and international media, I took the chance and made another application for a travel document.

I was not surprised when the apartheid Department of Home Affairs responded favourably to my request. This latest development also attracted the attention of the local media. The Daily News and the Mercury published the story under the headlines: “Subramoney finally gets his passport”, and “Passport granted after 10 years.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                 -203-

                               -204-

 

The Daily News story published on December 25 1989 read:

“Durban journalist Mr Marimuthu Subramoney (43) has been given a passport after being denied one for 10 years.

“Department of Home Affairs officials handed him his passport on his birthday last week. It is valid for two years.

“Mr Subramoney made numerous applications to the Government for a passport over the past decade. He also visited Cape Town and Pretoria three times to see officials in the Department of Home Affairs.

“The officials told him openly that he could not get a passport because the Government did not like his style of journalism, nor his analysis of South African politics.

“Mr Subramoney sent copies of his latest application to Mr Eugene Louw, Minister of Home Affairs, to State President, FW de Klerk, and to six foreign ambassadors in South Africa.

“During the time he was not allowed out of South Africa, Mr Subramoney lost out on several invitations by foreign governments and overseas groups, including a scholarship at Edinburgh University to do a post-graduate course in international relations.

                              -205-

 

“ ‘Many people I have spoken to overseas about getting a passport have said they cannot believe it and that things must be really changing here.

 ‘Personally, because I have lost out on the invitations, I feel bitter, although I am happy to get a passport.’

“Mr Subramoney now plans to take his family and to live in Germany for two years, working for Radio Deutsche Welle.

“A journalist for nearly 20 years, he worked for the Daily News for eight years and is now a freelance journalist. He is the South African correspondent for Radio Deutsche Welle, the Press Trust of India and several other radio stations and news agencies.

“Mr Subramoney was banned for three years and was placed under house arrest.”

       

 

 

 

                              

 

 

 

                                  -206-

 

RELATIONSHIP OF TRUST WITH ACTIVISTS

 

My involvement as a journalist in the struggles for a free, non-racial and democratic South Africa led me to interact and forge strong bonds with political activists and leaders across the social, educational, sporting and political fields.

This relationship of trust was forged since the late 1960s and right up to and after the 1990s when the former apartheid regime was replaced by a new democratic government in April 1994.

Some of these activists and leaders included George Sewpersadh, Mewa

Ramgobin, Paul David, M J Naidoo, Ramlal Ramesar, Farooq Meer,  Pravin Gordhan, Yunus Mahomed and Jerry Coovadia of the Natal Indian Congress and later the United Democratic Front(UDF); Archie Gumede, Dharam K Singh, Griffith Mxenge, and Don Kali, four Durban lawyers who worked as anti-apartheid activists; RS Naidoo and Pat Samuels, who were leaders in the educational sector; and sports leaders such as M N (Manikam Nadarajen) Pather (tennis and SA Council of Sport), Morgan Naidoo and Archie Hulley

                                    -207-

 

(swimming), Cassim Bassa (table tennis), Pat

Naidoo, Harold Samuels and Krish Mackerdhuj (cricket) and Norman Middleton, R K Naidoo, SK Chetty, Dharam Ramlall and M N Govender (football).

All the UDF, Natal Indian Congress and anti-apartheid sports leaders provided me with the opportunity to file regular reports, after my banning order was lifted in 1983, for international radio stations and the Press Trust of India and other world media organisations through our Press Trust of SA News Agency.

The radio stations that I filed daily breaking reports included BBC Focus on Africa and other programmes, Radio Netherlands, Radio Deutsche Welle and Radio France International.

My reports for Radio Deutsche Welle, which was based in Koln, and other international radio stations were followed by listeners all over Africa and South Africa.

White listeners in South Africa did not like my reports and criticised Deutsche Welle for using me as their correspondent.

 

 

                                  -208-

One listener, calling himself Colin and based in Pretoria even wrote a letter to the Citizen Newspaper in Johannesburg expressing his disillusionment at my reports for Deutsche Welle and other radio stations.

The letter was published under the headline - “Feeding overseas media” on June 25 1987:

                              -209-

“As a regular listener to Radio Deutsche Welle (Newsline Cologne), I have over the years become more and more disillusioned about the outright anti-RSA propaganda emanating thence as ‘news’. At times I felt that it would be pointless to continue subjecting myself to diatribes, distortions and just plain lies which this station (which in the past used to be known for balanced and objective reporting) directs at the RSA on a daily basis.

“Much of its ‘news’ concerning the situation inside the country could just as well been scripted by the ANC.

“One name that keeps cropping up is that of Subry Govender. Curious to find out more about this person’s background, enquiries pointed to an organisation known as “Press Trust of SA” (PTSA). Further enquiries turned up the fact that PTSA appears to be feeding overseas sources with virtually totally biased propaganda against South Africa. – COLIN PRETORIA”

This “COLIN” did not fully identify himself but there is no doubt that judging from his knowledge of my work as a journalist, he could have been more than just an ordinary listener. My suspicions are that he was a member of the dreaded security police at that time.

                                   

                              -210-

 

The activities of people like “COLIN” did not deter me one bit. I, in fact, took my direction from anti-apartheid leaders and others who shaped my thinking and who I used to interview on a regular basis about the numerous socio-politico issues affecting the people. 

I recall once I interviewed M N Pather at his offices near the Naaz cinema in the Grey Street area of Durban about his views for a future South Africa. He told me he was not openly political in nature but he wanted to see a South Africa where all people would be treated with respect and fairness in all fields of life.

Regarding his involvement in the anti-apartheid sporting arena, he said:

“Listen Subry, I am involved in isolating apartheid sport because I want to see all people given a fair chance in an open society.  When we reach a stage where all sportsmen and women can represent the country, then I think my work has been done.

“In an open society I would like to see the best sportsmen and women selected to represent the country and, in this regard, I would not care whether those selected are Blacks or Whites. As long as the teams are selected on merit, then I wouldn’t care about the colour of those chosen.”

                                 -211-

The involvement by people such as MN Pather, Norman Middleton, Hassan Howa and Morgan Naidoo in the sporting arena, and by people such as Archie Gumede, Mewa Ramgobin, Griffith Mxenge, Rev Msibisi Xundu, Dr Alan Boesak, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dr Nthatho Motlana and sociologist and activist, Professor Fatima Meer, and her husband, Ismail Meer, who was banned at that time, provided me, a “Coolie Journalist”, and my other colleagues such as Zwelike Sisulu, Philip Mthimkulu, Juby Mayet, Mathatha Tsedu, Rashid Seria, Joe Thloloe,  Charles Nqakula, and others such as R. Brijlall, Deven Moodley and Dennis Pather, the ammunition to highlight the struggles both locally and internationally.

The “struggle journalists” remained undaunted in their work and increased their reportage despite the repressive actions of the apartheid security establishment and the declaration of emergency regulations in the mid-1980s. There’s no doubt that the fearless work by journalists in reporting the activities of the anti-establishment people and leaders on one side and the repressive actions of the apartheid forces, on the other, during this period had definitely had some impact on the thinking of the world towards South Africa.

 

                                -212-

 

TURNING POINT: A NEW DAWN – INTERVIEWING AHMED KATHRADA, NELSON MANDELA AND PROF FATIMA MEER

 

It, therefore, came as no surprise when in the late 1980s it was reported that the Pretoria regime had begun initial talks with Nelson Mandela in prison about the deteriorating political situation.

It became clear, at the insistence of leaders inside and outside the country, that negotiations with the Pretoria regime will only take place when all political leaders were released and the ANC and other organisations were un-banned.

Sometime towards the end of September 1989 I received information that we should prepare for the release of Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Andrew Mlangeni, Raymond Mahlaba, Elias Motsoledi and Ahmed Kathrada.

They were all sentenced to life imprisonment along with Denis Goldberg and Nelson Mandela in 1964.

Goldberg was released in 1985 after being imprisoned for 21 years.

Walter Sisulu and his colleagues were released within a month in October 1989.

 

                               -213-

 

THE KATHRADA INTERVIEW: “Cultural heritages of all people should be guaranteed”

 

Being a correspondent of the Press Trust of India, I was commissioned by my editors in New Delhi to make arrangements to travel to Johannesburg to interview Ahmed Kathrada, because he had his roots in the state of Gujarat in North India.

I telephoned some of my contacts, including Cassim Salojee, and only a few days after his release I was told that I could travel to Johannesburg to talk to Mr Kathrada.

I was picked up by a young man from the then Jan Smuts International Airport and taken to his family home in Lenasia, Johannesburg. The young man told me that he was related to Mr Kathrada.

At the Lenasia home, I found Mr Kathrada and Mr Cassim Salojee waiting for me. Mr Kathrada was dressed in a white t-shirt and brown pants. He was smiling broadly and told me that he had heard about me and was very keen to grant me an interview.

 

 

 

                                       -214-

(Mr Ahmed Kathrada -right – with Mr Cassim Salojee at a family home in Lenasia in Johannesburg in October 1989 after his release from Robben Island.)

 

I asked Mr Kathrada about his roots and he informed me that when he was a small boy about 7 years old, his parents had departed from their village in Gujarat in the late 1920s to seek a new life in South Africa. They settled in the town of Schweize Reneke in the then Transvaal province.

He went to primary school in the small town and later continued his high school in Johannesburg.

After talking to Kathrada about his involvement in the liberation struggles, his imprisonment in 1964 at the end of the famous Rivonia Trial and his nearly three decades on Robben Island and Victor Verster Prison in Cape Town, I asked him about the role played by people of Indian-origin and, among other things, their continued involvement in a future South Africa.

                                 -215-

“Well, the role of the Indian community as an oppressed community,” he said, “is to increasingly throw in their lot with the rest of the oppressed people of South Africa, namely the African and Coloured people and the democratic Whites, to strengthen the national liberation movement.

“The Indian people, like other communities, must play a more active, more important role in the struggles.”

Mr Kathrada was fully aware and informed of the leading roles played by Indian-origin activists in various sporting, social, community, and political organisations in the anti-apartheid struggles during his years of imprisonment. He told me these struggles must continue until a non-racial and democratic South Africa was realised.

“We are very encouraged by the political consciousness, especially among the younger Indians. All I can say at this time is that there is room for greater participation on the part of the Indian people,” he said.

I asked him what he thought of those people who had collaborated at that time with the apartheid regime to implement the racial policies of the tri-cameral parliament.

This was his response:

                                  -216-

“Well, they certainly don’t represent the aspirations of the Indian people or the Coloured people or the people of South Africa. This has been proved in the first election that has taken place and in the election that took place last year. The Indian and Coloured masses have shown that they have no confidence in the people who are participating in the tri-cameral system. They have not been able to rally the Indian masses behind them, they have not called public meetings where people would give them a vote of confidence. They have not reported back, so there is no way they can claim that they represent the aspirations of the people of this country.”

I told Mr Kathrada that despite the enormous contributions and sacrifices made by him and leaders like Dr Yusuf Dadoo, Dr Monty Naicker, Dr Kesaval Goonum, J N(Jaydew Nasib) Singh, Billy Nair, and thousands and thousands of other activists, there were many people within the Indian-origin community who had expressed their fears about their future. This is how he responded:

“Well just as I have said about Whites that the fears of the Indian-origin people are really, unfounded. Such fears arise as a result more of ignorance than anything else.

“Unfortunately, because of years and years of

                                    -217-

apartheid and separation, the Indian, Coloured and African and the Whites for that matter have not mixed sufficiently. They are ignorant of each other and the media particularly, the commercial media, and the government have gone out of their way to further separate the people so that they don’t know each other. As a result, suspicions grow, suspicions develop and fear develops.

“Of course, there have been some nasty unfortunate incidents, particularly in Inanda, and a few other places, Everton here in the Transvaal in the 1980s, which are very unfortunate. I don’t know to what extent the authorities or the police had a hand in those incidents, I don’t know, I wasn’t here.”

Mr Kathrada then went onto emphasise the non-racial and democratic policies of the ANC.

“The ANC policy has never ever been for a Black majority government. The ANC policy has always been for a majority government, based on policies which it espouses. An ANC government could be purely Black, it could be mixed, it could be all-White, it could be majority White, Coloured and Indian because the ANC does not look on the colour of the government of the people.

“The ANC is interested in the policies that a

                                -218-

 

government pursues. The basic thing is not the colour of the people.

“What we should try to forget about as we tried to do on Robben Island is that we were Indians or Coloureds, we were just people and once our people outside jail start to think of themselves just as people, I think we would go more than half way towards allaying any fears that exist in the country.”

Mr Kathrada was very clear that what should be protected in a future non-racial and democratic South Africa was not minority rights but individual human rights.

“We believe that any solution to the problems of South Africa cannot be successful if anyone wants to protect minority rights or group rights. We believe that what is needed is a Bill of Rights which guarantees individual rights, individual human rights, and we believe once you guarantee individual human rights you are covering group rights as well.

At the same time, we would like to guarantee cultural rights and language rights. But these are not based on ethnicity. There are large numbers of people who are not White but speak Afrikaans.

                                   -219-

 

That should be guaranteed in any Bill of Rights, not only Afrikaans but all languages. All cultural heritages of all people should be guaranteed. But that can be guaranteed in individual rights in a Bill of Rights.”

The ideals for a new South Africa, he told me, were emphasised in the Freedom Charter which was adopted during a mass gathering of the Congress of the People at Kliptown in Johannesburg in 1955.

“We have already in 1955 embraced what we stand for, what the Congress movement stands for, in the Freedom Charter. Since then, we have reiterated our belief in the fundamentals of the Freedom Charter. We believe that any future South Africa - a society, state, and government – must be based on the ideals of the Freedom Charter that lays the foundation for a free, non-racial, democratic, and peaceful South Africa.”

During the interview, Mr Kathrada expressed the ANC’s gratitude to the Government and people of India for always supporting the release of Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners and internationalising the liberation struggles of South Africa’s oppressed people.

“We are very grateful to the Government of India.

                                 -220-

It should be remembered that in 1946 the Government of India took the lead in responding to a resolution of the South African Indian Congress. It took the lead in imposing sanctions against South Africa and it took the lead again at the instigation of the South African Indian Congress in raising the oppression of the people at the United Nations. It also took the lead in raising the question of Namibia at the United Nations.

“The Indian Government, following the resolutions of the South African Indian Congress, helped or initiated the internationalisation of our struggle and the Namibian struggle. We believe that the Indian Government will continue to play the role that it has played in movements such as the Non-Aligned Movement, the UN, and other international bodies. We are very grateful that they have done that and we look forward to India continuing to do that.”

I wrote a lengthy article after this interview and submitted it to PTI in New Delhi. The article was published in most of the major newspapers in India.

Then, when his fellow Robben Island comrade, Nelson Mandela, was released on February 11 1990, I was there along with scores of foreign and local journalists to witness this historic event in

                                  -221-

 

front of the Pollsmoor Prison, near Cape Town.

This time, not only the Press Trust of India, but news organisations and radio stations from several parts of the world assigned me to report every aspect of this historic development.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                   -222-

                                   -223-

 

                                        -224-

 

The Indian media was not only interested in the freedom accorded to Mandela but also to Mandela’s statement during a press conference at the home of Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town.

(Nelson Mandela addressing the media at the home of Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town after his release on February 11 1990. Seated at the far left is Subry Govender.)

 

The meeting with the large contingent of media people was scheduled after Mr Mandela had earlier addressed masses of people in the centre of Cape Town.

It was at this media conference that I had the privilege of talking to Mr Mandela for the first time – by me asking him a question. I wanted to know that now that he had been released, which country

                                    -225-

 

in the world he would first like to visit?

In response, Mandela said now that he was free, one of the first countries he would like to visit was India.

The article I wrote about his response was given headline coverage by Indian newspapers such as The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Indian Express and the Statesman.

Here are some of the reports:

                  

                       -226-                                                                                         

 

     

 

 

                                 -227-

 

       

 

 

 

 

                 

 

 

                                

                                   -228-

 

      FIRST EVER VISIT TO INDIA

 

A month after the release of Nelson Mandela in February 1990, I made arrangements to visit India after being granted my passport. I had been denied a passport for more than 10 years from late 1980 to 1990.

During my visit to India, I not only tried to locate the village of our ancestors in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, but I also finalised my

contract with the Press Trust of India to work as their correspondent in Johannesburg. When I returned in April 1990, I made arrangements to move to Johannesburg and it was only in January 1991 that I migrated to Johannesburg. Here I purchased a property in the White area of Sandringham and had to obtain special permission to reside in the suburb.

Soon after Nelson Mandela was released from life imprisonment on February 11 1990 and the ANC and other liberation movements were unbanned, South Africa experienced a shocking increase in political violence in many townships around the country. Scores of people were killed in areas in and around townships in Johannesburg, Durban,

                                 -229-

 

Pietermaritzburg, and other areas.

At the same time, certain forces, linked to the security elements of the former apartheid regime, began to sow seeds of fear and anxiety among people of Indian-origin in KwaZulu-Natal. It was clear that this was done in, an attempt to prevent most people of Indian-origin throwing in their lot with Mr Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC).

The actions of the apartheid security elements in promoting fear among people of Indian-origin

affected a number of communities in and around Durban and the leaders of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) expressed their concerns about this new development and held discussions with Mr Mandela and other ANC leaders.

It was against this background that I made arrangements for an interview with Mr Mandela at his offices in Johannesburg after he took over the leadership of the ANC.

His personal assistant and spokesperson at that time in 1990 was Ms Gill Marcus. When I telephoned to ask for an interview with Mr Mandela, she was more than supportive and said she would make all the arrangements.

                             -230-

Sometime in June 1990, she called me to say that she was successful in arranging for me to

interview Mr Mandela at 8:30am sharp.

When I arrived at the building (now known as Luthuli House), Ms Marcus was waiting for me. She guided me to an office in one of the floors where one of Mr Mandela’s bodyguards conducted a body search on me.

Ms Marcus walked into another office to inform Mr Mandela that “Mr Subramoney of the Press Trust of India” had arrived to speak to him.

Within a few minutes she came out of the office and told me that Mr Mandela was ready for the interview.

When I was escorted to Mr Mandela’s office, it was the second time in about five months that I had come into such a close meeting with the freedom icon.

The first time was on February 11 1990 when he was released and was addressing local and foreign journalists at the home of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

                                     

 

 

 

                                  -231-

(Interviewing Mr Nelson Mandela at his office in central Johannesburg after his release on February 11 1990.)

 

INTERVIEWING NELSON MANDELA, JUNE 1990

     “We will not forget our friends…”

Now, a few months later in Johannesburg, I once again sat a few metres from Mr Mandela to interview him about the future relations with India and his views about the concerns expressed by people of Indian-origin about the actions of certain security elements in sowing seeds of fear and anxiety.

Mr Mandela was as welcoming as ever and told me: “Mr Subramoney you can ask me any question you want, you don’t have to worry.”

I was relieved.

                                 -232-

 

During my interview, I told Mr Mandela that it seemed the violence that was sweeping the country appeared to be the work of the apartheid security and intelligence forces to sew fear and anxiety among the minority communities.

I asked Mr Mandela what would be the approach of the ANC as a future government in protecting the rights of all people in South Africa, including those

citizens who are of Indian-origin.

He acknowledged the contributions of leaders and organisations coming from the Indian-origin community and said he would travel the length and breadth of the country to reassure citizens about their future in a non-racial and democratic South Africa.

He was firm in his view that the rights of minority communities would be protected in a Bill of Rights for all people. This is what he told me:

“The only way of entrenching minority rights in this country is a Bill of Rights which sets out the rights of every South African, irrespective of the national group he or she belongs to. That we have done. We have gone further to say that the constitution will not only be amended by a two thirds majority. We have also declared that there will be proportional

                                     -233-

 

representation. Any party that gets more votes

than a certain percentage will be entitled to representation.

“Those strategies are intended to protect the rights of the minorities.”

He added: “We have and I have addressed a number of Indian occasions like Diwali and Eid/ Ramadaan, and I am due to address further rallies

in these communities. I have addressed Indian businessmen twice already in Durban since I came. I have addressed Indian businessmen in Johannesburg. We are addressing the Indian community because of the vital role which they played in the past and which they are likely to play in the future.”

I also wanted to know what kind of relationship a new South Africa will have with India since India has been one of the first countries to take up the freedom struggles of South Africans at the United Nations and also provided support to the ANC.

Mandela acknowledged the role that India has played in promoting the cause of South Africans through the ANC and said the relationship would be very close.

                                       -234-

This is what Mandela told me: “Oh naturally they

will be very good because of the relationship between the ANC and the Government of India. We are looking forward to the further strengthening of those relations. We will not forget our friends, I can assure you.”

Mandela said he personally was inspired by the freedom leaders of India such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal  Nehru. He expanded: “Well, the

writings and speeches by Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru about the unity of India, the letters which he wrote to his daughter, Indira, from prison, provided us with a great deal of literature. Also, the writings of Mahatma Gandhi on Satyagraha and other issues of the Indian struggle. Not only that they taught us, they (also) demonstrated how freedom fighters should handle the problems facing the country and the fact that they were in and out of prison raised our esteem and respect for them.”

The ANC was conducting full negotiations with De Klerk and his Government for the transition to the new South Africa. In order to cover events, we as local and foreign correspondents had to register with the ANC.

 

 

                                        -235-

This was the card that was issued to me in 1991.

 

Working as a correspondent for international radio stations, especially Radio Deutsche Welle, BBC Focus on Africa and Radio Nederlands, once again earned me the respect of listeners who expressed their support for my tenacity in reporting bravely from South Africa.

One listener of Radio Nederlands in the town of Tibro in Sweden, K Hasseltig, had this to say after listening to my report on the station’s Newsline programme on January 9 1989:

 

 

 

 

                               -236-

                      

“The chat you had with your South Africa correspondent a few weeks ago regarding the situation for journalists was very interesting. I had not realised that he was a citizen of RSA, and that fact in my eyes makes his work even more admirable.”

One listener of Radio Deutsche Welle from Uganda, Orapa-Okello Jimmy Michael, wrote a special letter after listening to one of my reports on the station’s Africa Report programme:  

                                

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                -237-

 

“As you might have known from my previous letter, I am a regular listener of Deutsche Welle.

“There is one thing which has interested me much is about your South African correspondent – Subry Govender.

                                    -238-

“I have liked the way this journalist organises and reports his reports. On top of that he takes trouble to include every detail in stories that always dominate the media in South Africa.

“According to me he is the best correspondent Deutsche Welle has ever got since I began to listen to Deutsche Welle with interest seven years ago. To tell you more he is followed by Alfred Shader and David Julius in the U.N.

“Now I have the interest especially in learning more about him. Can you please send his biography and his photograph especially now as he covers the South African situation. I will be grateful if your reaction will be positive.”

In June 1994, I joined the state broadcaster, SABC as a senior political journalist, in order to contribute to the development of our new South Africa. I joined the SABC only after the democratic elections in April 1994, after the ANC was elected to power and Nelson Mandela was elected as president.

Here, I used my position to compile the profiles of a number of leaders who had contributed to the realisation of our new South Africa. I created a programme called “Our Rich History” and compiled radio documentaries on anti-apartheid sports, community and political leaders and important

                                -239-

 

events such as the launch of the UDF in August 1983 in Cape Town; the release of Nelson Mandela in February 1990, the April 1994 democratic elections, the election of Nelson Mandela as President in May 1994, the visit of Mandela on an official visit to India in 1995 and the official visit of President Thabo Mbeki to India.

I also travelled to India in 1995 to cover the visit of Nelson Mandela on his official visit to India.

(I took this photo of Mr Ahmed Kathrada and a senior official visiting the home of Mahatma Gandhi in the state of Gujerat during the official visit to India with President Nelson Mandela.)

 

Mr Mandela was accompanied on this visit by fellow Robben Island comrade, Mr Ahmed

                               -240-

 

Kathrada, and a number of other politicians and business personalities.

In 1999, after Thabo Mbeki succeeded Mandela as the second democratic president of the new South Africa, I made another trip to India when Mbeki made a state visit to the land of our ancestors. I covered his visit to the cities of Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad.

Then in early 2004 when Tamil Nadu and other southern states in India were hit by the Tsunami, I made another visit to cover the aftermath of the natural disaster.

Then in 2008, I made another visit when I was invited by the Government of India to attend a conference of people of Indian-origin in the cities of Chennai and New Delhi.

In 2009 when I just completed 15 years of my service at the SABC, I chose to resign and continue with my work as an international correspondent. 

 

 

 

 

 

                                 -241-

 

INTERVIEW WITH FATIMA MEER: “NIC SHOULD BE REVIVED.”

 

During my stay at the SABC, one of the Indian-origin leaders that I interviewed once again was Professor Fatima Meer in 2008 when she turned 80.

(Prof Fatima Meer with her advocates, Ismail Mahomed and Norman Mailer, and son-in-law, Bobby Mari during the 1980s.)

 

                                  -242-

 

I spoke to Professor Meer at her home in Burnwood Road,  Sydenham,  Durban.

This was the home that I used to visit on a regular basis to talk to Professor Meer when I was working at the Daily News between the early 1970s and 1980.

This time in 2008 I was keen to get her views about certain politicians making all kinds of racist statements, inspite of the fact that we had passed the apartheid era and were now living in a new non-racial and democratic South Africa.

I am writing about this interview because Professor Meer outlined in clear terms the mistakes that some leaders of the Natal Indian Congress had committed in the 1990s by succumbing to calls for the NIC to be disbanded. This move was not acceptable to many of the leaders in the NIC but they were pushed aside by certain leaders who felt that there was no longer a need for the organisation in a new non-racial and democratic South Africa. These leaders even went against the views of Nelson Mandela who felt that the NIC was an historical organisation and there was no need for it to be disbanded.

Professor Meer did not pull any punches in that

 

                            -243-

 

final interview I had with her. She informed me that she had written to President Thabo Mbeki at that time expressing her concerns about the racism being spread by some of the new politicians.

She was of the view that the Indian-origin community was being targeted by some of the new politicians because, according to her, the community lacked leadership and organisations to take up issues affecting the communities.

At this time South Africans were observing our 15^th year of our new democracy and she was concerned about the lack of interest in the political affairs of the country by most people of Indian-origin.

She was very candid in her view that the Natal Indian Congress should not have been disbanded and that NIC leaders should have listened to Mandela for the organisation to have remained.

She, therefore, was of the view that the Natal Indian Congress should be revived.

 

This is what she told me: “The Natal Indian Congress should be revived because it has a very rich history. You don’t want to miss out on that history. You want to build on that history, so revive the Congress. It is a pity that it was disbanded at all.”

                                -244-

 

Professor Meer told me in that interview that it was a major tragedy that some ANC people forced leaders of the NIC to disband the organisation just before the democratic elections in 1994. She had written to President Thabo Mbeki in 1999 about what she referred to as ‘this grave mistake’.

 

“You see the Indians had a very strong organisation in the Natal Indian Congress and I wrote to Mr Mbeki in 1999, pointing out that it has been a tragedy that the ANC had asked the NIC to be disbanded.

“It was an organisation that stood by the ANC at all times. Now the ANC had made the biggest mistake, I pointed out to Mr Mbeki, by saying you don’t need the NIC, you can belong to the ANC. But the reality is that we first have to mobilise ourselves. 

 

“As a political party, the ANC is fine and totally acceptable but to organise the Indian people, the people need an organisation.”

Professor Meer told me that she was deeply disappointed that in view of the absence of a progressive organisation like the NIC, the ANC after 1994 had chosen to associate itself with reactionary and opportunistic elements within the Indian-origin community.

                                -245-

 

“The ANC deluded itself into thinking that some opportunistic elements represented the Indian-origin people. I pointed out to Mr Mbeki that the ANC should deal with an organised group of people who have principles and programmes that are akin to the ANC, instead of going around piecemeal, picking up people who have money. I pointed out that the NIC should be revived because of its history and its role in the liberation struggle.”

 

 

                          CONCLUSION

 

A few years after I joined the national broadcaster, SABC, as a senior political journalist in 1995, at least one ruling party politician in KwaZulu-Natal tried to influence us about the kind of stories that we should cover and tackle.

I rejected this interference and pointed out to the politician concerned that journalists like us, who were involved in the struggles for media freedom during the apartheid era, would never become stooges of the state.

I emphasised this to my colleagues that media freedom in our new democracy should not be tampered with because without “freedom of speech and freedom of the media”, democracy would not survive in the new South Africa.

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This is the legacy that I would like to leave behind for aspiring journalists and for them to make a contribution to development by ensuring that as a journalist “they make a difference in the lives of the people and society”.

I would like to emphasise that I am grateful that we had been able to launch our new non-racial and democratic Government in April 1994.

The ruling ANC had initially introduced a number of measures to uplift the lives of the people. But, sadly over the past three decades many of the new politicians at all levels of government had forgotten the values and principles of the Mandelas, Sisulus, Mbekis, Kathradas and others.

But, despite the negative developments, I would like to express confidence that the new South Africa will return to the values and principles of the struggle stalwarts and positive conditions would be created for the economy to grow and for all the people to look forward to “a better life for all”.

 

I would like to end by quoting Nelson Mandela when he delivered his speech at the end of his treason trial in 1974.

 

                                

 

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This is what he repeated when he was released

 from life imprisonment on February 11 1990 when addressing thousands of people at the Grand Parade in Cape Town.

 

“I have fought against White domination, and I have fought against Black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” Ends – subrygovender@gmail.com  Oct 31 2025