SONA CHAOTIC SCENES PART THREE

The chaos, fisticuffs, swear words, racial insults and forceful eviction of MPs that characterised the State of Nation address by President Jacob Zuma on Thursday have caused outrage and disappointment among South Africans. Veteran leaders and others have reacted by saying that the pandemonium in parliament has damaged the image of democratic South Africa and would not be good for the country. LISTEN TO THE THIRD PART OF THE CHAOTIC SCENES ON SONA EVENING:

SONA CHAOTIC SOUND SECOND PART

The chaos, fisticuffs, swear words, racial insults and forceful eviction of MPs that characterised the State of Nation address by President Jacob Zuma on Thursday have caused outrage and disappointment among South Africans. Veteran leaders and others have reacted by saying that the pandemonium in parliament has damaged the image of democratic South Africa and would not be good for the country. LISTEN TO SOME OF THE SOUND:

SONA 2017 DISORDER

The chaos, fisticuffs, swear words, racial insults and forceful eviction of MPs that characterised the State of Nation address by President Jacob Zuma on Thursday have caused outrage and disappointment among South Africans. Veteran leaders and others have reacted by saying that the pandemonium in parliament has damaged the image of democratic South Africa and would not be good for the country.

CHAOS AND PANDEMONIUM IN PARLIAMENT ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9 2017 SOUND

The chaos, fisticuffs, swear words, racial insults and forceful eviction of MPs that characterised the State of Nation address by President Jacob Zuma on Thursday, fEBRUARY 9 2017 have caused outrage and disappointment among South Africans. Veteran leaders and others have reacted by saying that the pandemonium in parliament has damaged the image of democratic South Africa and would not be good for the country. HERE ARE THE SOUND FOR YOUR DIGESTION:

KAY MOONSAMY – THE HUMBLE FREEDOM ACTIVIST WHO SACRIFICED 67 YEARS OF HIS LIFE, INCLUDING HIS FAMILY, IN THE ANC STRUGGLES FOR A FREE, NON-RACIAL AND DEMOCRATIC SOUTH AFRICA

Mr Kay Moosamy addressing a function in 2010 held to remember the contributions of people in the social, political, educational, economic and sporting upliftment of South Africa. By Subry Govender One of the political activists and struggle stalwarts who like, Nelson Mandela, sacrificed 67 years of his life for the freedom we enjoy today is little-known 90-year-old Kay Moonsamy of Chatsworth in Durban. This correspondent had the opportunity of interviewing Mr Moonsamy at his home in 2009 when he had retired from active politics after serving 10 years in parliament as a member of the ruling ANC. He had earlier spent 27 in exile, working for the ANC in Botswana, Swaziland, Zambia, India and the Soviet Union. Born at Overport in Durban in 1926, Kay Moonsamy became involved in the political struggles at the tender age of 16 when he joined the Natal Box, Broom and Bush Workers Union while working as a labourer at a factory called Rhodesian Timbers Limited in an area now known as Durban North. His parents were working-class and poor. He was forced to leave school at an early age because of the economic conditions at home and he was obliged to go to work in order to assist his family. “I joined the trade union movement in order to improve our working conditions and to get higher wages,” he said. “The wages at that time was a miserable 15 shillings (about R1 – 50) a week. My involvement in the trade union led me to joining the Community Party and the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in 1944 at the young age of 18.” At this time in the 1940s there was a titanic struggle between conservative and progressive forces in the NIC and Moonsamy became actively involved in the campaign to overthrow the conservative element, known as the Kajee-Pather group. The leaders of this association were businessmen and cultural leaders, Mr A I Kajee and Mr P R Pather.

“In 1943 the Natal Indian Congress was in the hands of the reactionary Kajee-Pather group. Now progressives like Dr Monty Naicker, M D Naidoo, Debi Singh and others formed what was called the Anti-Segregation Council in order to bring about a change in the leadership because of the reactionary stances of the Kajee-Pather group who did not want to have any collaboration with other national groups. They said they will go it alone in so far as the struggles against the Government at that time. “That campaign drew me into the struggles of the NIC and we removed the Kajee-Pather group way back in 1945. We attended a meeting at Currie’s Fountain on 21st October 1945 when we kicked out the Kajee-Pather group lock, stock and barrel,” said Moonsamy. For the next 10 years he was caught up in a number of trade union and anti-government struggles. During one of the campaigns against racial oppression, Moonsamy, still only 20 years-years-old, was arrested, charged and convicted under the notorious Riotous Assemblies Act. He was sentenced to his first term in jail for four months, serving his imprisonment at the Durban Central Prison and at a farm in Ixopo in southern KwaZulu-Natal. When he was about to take up the post of the full-time organising secretary of the Natal Indian Congress, he was arrested with 155 other leaders in 1956 and charged with High Treason. This was the first time that he had met activists who would later become the leading lights of the struggle. “For the first time we had an opportunity to meet the leaders from all the different provinces. We knew most of our members by name but did not meet them personally. The Treason arrests gave us an opportunity to meet all of them at the Fort Prison in Johannesburg. They included comrades such as Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and Walter Sisulu.” In 1961 at the age of 36 Munsamy found himself fully involved in the underground activities of the Communist Party in Durban. At this time the Communist Party was one of the organisations with the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress(PAC) that had been banned and proscribed by the former apartheid regime. But underground work was a dangerous terrain and he was arrested along with other members of his underground cell. He was charged with belonging to unlawful organisations.

On the 29th of June 1965, while out on bail, he was asked by the ANC to go into exile. He first went to Botswana where he spent three years from 1965 to 1968. “Then the movement asked me to come over to Zambia where I joined the External Mission,” he said. “At that point in time we had External Missions in different countries but not very many. We had an office in London, some offices in Africa, with one in Zambia and our headquarters based in Tanzania.” When Kay Moonsamy went into exile in 1965 he had to leave behind his wife and four children, the youngest was his son Rajan, who was only nine-months-old. He met them again for the first time 15 years later in Swaziland. This was the most traumatic period in his life. “After leaving my wife and children in 1965, we met again for the first time on the fourth of July 1980 in Manzini in Swaziland. When I joined the ANC in exile, our eldest child, Tammy, was nine-years-old, Ragini was six, Saroj was two-and-half and our youngest Rajan was only nine-months-old. Incidentally Rajan was born when I was in detention in 1964. When I met them again, Tammy was already married and our youngest Rajan was 15-years-old.” In exile, Moonsamy served the ANC, the SACP and the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) in several capacities. He was also the ANC's representative in India for a brief period in 1978 and worked for some time in the ANC's treasurer's department. “Working in the Treasurer General’s office I was involved in fund-raising and seeing to the maintenance and upkeep of those who had fled the country. In 1976 we had a large numbers of people coming into exile, especially after the Soweto uprisings in June 1976. “Large numbers of students came into exile and my activities included working with the late Thomas Nkobi for the upkeep and maintenance of our people. Now we had thousands to provide food, clothing and shelter,” said Moonsamy. He also underwent military training in the then Soviet Union and was one of the activists in exile who was involved in the formulation and development of the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College in Tanzania. This was his last assignment before returning home in 1991. He said: “At the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College, which was based in Morogoro, we also constructed houses. When we took over that place there were just about six ram-shackled buildings. But when we left Tanzania in 1992, the Movement (ANC) handed over to the Tanzanian Government 300 conventional buildings with running water, fully-furnished offices, houses, and tarred roads. We were also self-sufficient in that place. We had a tailor shop, shoe-making shop, agricultural sector, we had a furniture factory, which provided the furniture for the 300 houses. The surplus we used to sell it on the market and that is how we used to raise funds for the Movement.” After his return home in 1991, he was very active in the South African Communist Party while serving at the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg. He was deployed as an MP in 1999, serving two terms until April 2009. He found parliamentary work just as rewarding as his freedom work. “Parliament was another terrain and it was interesting. As legislators we had to enact laws in keeping with our founding document and a constitution which stands for a united, democratic, non-sexist, non-racial South Africa. I think we participated fully, strengthened the parliamentary structures and today I think we can be proud that we have a strong democratic system in our country and I think the Constitution is paramount.” Although he's now retired, Kay Moonsamy cannot stay out of politics. He’s still involved with the ANC branch in Chatsworth. In the interview in 2009 he told me that he was very happy with the progress made so far by the ANC and believed the Jacob Zuma Government would be very effective, despite the many challenges. One of the challenges was the use of racism by some ANC deployees. I asked him for his views about this, especially racism that was used to try to destroy the historical Early Morning Market in Durban. “Making racist remarks are not permissible and I think it will be outrageous if those statements comes from people within the Movement (ANC) that stands for a fully non-racial, democratic South Africa. This is not only what we have to preach but also practise. The ANC stands for this noble ideal and I think we are totally committed to building a non-racial, democratic society. One cannot over-emphasise this,” he had said. Mr Kay Moonsamy and most of the activists of his calibre were and are firmly rooted in the ANC's values and principles. It's hoped that some of those now found wanting will follow in the footsteps of the Kay Moonsamys', who had sacrificed almost everything, including their families, to promote the cause of true freedom, justice, liberty and non-racialism. – ends (subrygovender@gmail.com)

OTTAWA RESIDENTS EXPRESS CONCERN ABOUT CONTINUED DEGENERATION

Concerned ratepayers and residents have once again drawn the attention of the Ethekwini Mayor, Ms Zandile Gumede, about the continued degeneration of the environment of their residential area. They have pointed out that the degeneration is caused mainly by: i). the litter and rubbish strewn on the main road running through the town; ii). the numerous motor scrap yards on both sides of the main road;

iii). huge trucks driving through the residential Munn Road, Riverview Road, Maharaj Road and Kisson Road; iv). a huge container depot at the far end of Riverview Road; v). huge trucks parked in several properties in Riverview Road and at the far end of Kisson Road; vi). the terrible smell and stink that emanates from the nearby municipal septic dam from across the river; vii). the animal business that has been built on land reclaimed from the river near the Ottawa bridge; and viii). the total destruction of the Ottawa river through unscrupulous truck owners dumping sand and rubbish into the river. The residents pointed out that following their earlier written complaints and reports in the media, it has been noticed that the municipality has tried to pick up the litter and rubbish “but the litter bugs and other culprits continue with their destruction of the environment”. The residents called on the municipality to immediately set up concrete bins at several spots on the main road and on the residential roads in order to encourage the “don’t care” people to use the bins for their litter and rubbish. The residents added: “It has also been noticed that one recently-opened panel beating shop at the corner of School Road and Munn Road has closed shop after concerns expressed to the municipality by our residents. “But the main culprits who are destroying our residential roads and environment through their huge trucks are continuing unconcerned with their evil and illegal deeds. “This huge truck (picture attached) was caught on camera by one of our residents driving through Munn Road to the container depot at the far end of Riverview Road. Huge trucks like this, ferrying containers, is not only dangerous to the residents in Munn and Riverview roads but also contributes to the destruction of the tarred roads and electricity cables and poles. “We want to appeal to the municipal authorities to take immediate action to restore the residential nature of our areas. All trucking, container, and heavy industries must be moved out of our residential area immediately to industrial locations where they could operate without destroying the environment. “:Heavy industries must be re-located and not allowed to operate in residential areas. Please act immediately,” said the residents. Ends – January 24 2017

RAJAS PILLAY – OUR RICH HISTORY SERIES : THIS WAS AN ARTICLE WRITTEN ABOUT RAJAS PILLAY THREE YEARS. SHE PASSED AWAY TODAY DEC 29 2020. MAY HER SOUL REST IN PEACE

As we enter the 23rd year of our freedom, we want to recall the lives of scores of former anti-apartheid activists who played a vital role in some way or the other in the struggles for a free, non-racial and democratic South Africa. This series will be brought to you by veteran journalist, Subry Govender (Marimuthu Subramoney), who during his career spanning nearly five decades, has interviewed and profiled the lives of some of these political, social, educational and sports activists. In our first instalment, Subry Govender profiles the life of 72-year-old Rajaluxmi Pillay of Reservoir Hills in Durban who spent 12 years in exile as a member of the political division of the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe. SHE BECAME AWARE OF RACISM AT AN EARLY AGE WHILE GROWING UP IN THE MINING TOWN OF KIMBERLEY “My father was a member of the Natal Indian Congress and I have some letters from M D Naidoo and J N Singh asking him to attend meetings in Durban. He was also secretary to the Coloured Peoples’ Congress. So most of my political awareness at that time was coloured by the activities of my father.” Rajaluxmi Pillay, who is well-known as Rajas to her comrades, friends and family members, was speaking about her entry into the anti-apartheid fold when I interviewed her in July 2009 just before she was honoured for her contributions to the struggles by the Durban-based Mahatma Gandhi Foundation. Born in Pietermaritzburg in 1944 she became aware of the unjust political system when she was still a young girl while growing up in the diamond mining town of Kimberley. Her parents moved to Kimberley when she was still a baby. The discriminatory state of affairs at that time became clear to Rajas Pillay when she was denied entry to the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg and the University of Cape Town to study law in the early 1960s. She then went to London where spent three years from 1963 to 1966, completing her A levels. Here she came into contact with Dr Yusuf Dadoo and other South Africans in exile. “Dr Dadoo used to use our flat for meetings with South African students and I came to know him very closely and others such as Essop and Aziz Pahad,” Ms Pillay told me. CAME TO KNOW DR YUSUF DADOO VERY CLOSELY IN LONDON “Although Dr Dadoo did not tell us directly what he was talking to the students about, it was clear that he was organising on behalf of the ANC. Dadoo and all others in exile were part of the Anti-Apartheid Movement,” she had said. Heavily influenced by Dr Dadoo and the others, Rajas Pillay, accompanied by her younger brother and mother, returned to South Africa in 1966. They settled in Asherville in Durban. She continued her studies at the University of Natal, where she came under the influence of activists of the calibre of Paul Devadas David, Phyllis Naidoo, Steve Biko, Rogers Ragavan and Ben Ngubane. During the 1970s, Rajas Pillay came into contact with the ANC underground while working for the Game Discount Centre in West Street, Durban at that time. WORKED FOR THE UNDERGROUND “At the same time,” she said, “I became a field worker for a programme that the South African Council of Churches (SACC) was running to look after those who were affected by the oppressive actions of the apartheid people”. “This gave me a good cover to make contact with people like George Naicker, Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, Mac Maharaj, Justin Khuzwayo, Shadrack Maphumulo, Phyllis Naidoo who left the country at some stage or the other, and some of the ladies that Phyllis used to be dealing with. “There was a woman called Mynah. If I remember correctly her husband died on Robben Island and the regime did not inform her about his death. “So this interaction of the people in the underground gave me more and more of an opening to go into the ANC.” In 1979 Rajas Pillay was recruited as a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe and skipped the country to work for the ANC in Swaziland. Life here for the next 12 years was difficult and dangerous with the apartheid South African Defence Force carrying out regular raids against ANC safe houses. Rajas Pillay was on the run most of the time. “You know the regime used its security forces and agents to attack, kidnap and assassinate our people,” she recalled. “There was fear all the time on the outside. The ANC headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia, told us that we must not leave the area and that we must survive somehow or the other. LIVED ILLEGALLY IN SWAZILAND “So the only option for us was to go underground and to live there illegally until headquarters gave us some direction as to what should happen. Then in 1985 two people came from headquarters to investigate our situation. They were Cassius Marge and Paul Dikeledi. “But before they could leave the airport they were shot.” Rajas Pillay was seriously affected by all the attacks, kidnappings and assassinations and she had to travel to Holland to seek medical treatment. “Life in exile in Swaziland was tough and dangerous. This had a serious impact on a lot of us,” she said. SERIOUSLY AFFECTED BY THE KILLINGS, KINDNAPPINGS AND ATTACKS OF ANC ACTIVISTS BY THE APARTHEID REGIME She continued with her medical treatment after she returned to the country in 1991 when negotiations were in full swing between the ANC and the former National Party government. Although she was receiving medical treatment, Rajas Pillay immediately returned to active politics by joining the ANC branch in Reservoir Hills in 1991. She was one of the senior people who helped to organise the people during the elections in 1994. In July 2009, nearly 15 years into our non-racial and democratic order, Rajas Pillay was of the view that the country was proceeding in the right direction although there was still much more to be done. “More needs to be done,” she said, “to bring about the social and economic upliftment of the majority of the people”. “I believe more emphasis should be placed on education and the building of more schools for the many thousands of people who are on the sidelines of the new South Africa. THE ANC MUST LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE “The ANC must ensure that they attend to and listen to the people they are ruling. If they do this, then there will be nothing to fear,” she told me in that interview seven years ago. Rajas Pillay said she was hopeful about the future because the younger generation were not fully aware of the evils of the apartheid past. “The children today go to integrated schools where all the children sit with one another. They don’t see themselves in racial terms. “They know no colour and that is where our future lies. I think if the class-room situation permeates in the hospitals, buses, trains, beaches and all that, then I think we are on the right track,” she had said., Rajas Pillay is just one of thousands of unsung heroes and heroines who have contributed to the struggles without making the headlines. It's hoped that they will not be forgotten. The honour bestowed by the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation on Rajas Pillay in 2009 is just the kind of gesture that would educate the post-1994 generations about the sacrifices made by many in our different communities for a non-racial, democratic and just society. Ends – subrygovender@gmail.com