Interview with Apartheid Activist
Yunus Shaik
Date: 3 June 2007
Audio appliance: video camera
Name: Yunus Shaik
Date of birth:
Occupation: Labour lawyer
Questions:
Can you tell me something about your childhood and how you got involved in politics or political resistance?
Since I had never experienced, and was not around during Apartheid times can you tell me what it was about?
How did you feel about the government and its laws at that time?
What were your feelings towards white supremacy?
Were you ever arrested or detained, if you have please elaborate?
Can you tell me of an experience which is still vibrant in your memory related to torture or anything?
Were you a member of the military wing of the ANC if you were what was your experience like?
How did you react to the laws such as the pass law and group areas act?
What were some of the most gruesome tortures people encountered; did you see or experience any, example the neck lacing?
Did you ever have a run-in with the law and what was the experience like?
Have any of your fellow activists reached high status among government and do you still keep in touch with them?
Would you like to add on any point that would interest others?
What future do we as Indian youth have in this country?
What is your message for the people of South Africa today?
Interview:
Aishah
Q: Can you tell me something about your childhood and how you got involved in politics or political resistance?
Yunus
A: I grew up in Kliptown, and Kliptown was a multicultural mixed neighbourhood, quite early in life I had experienced living with people of different religions, different race, different class background and our house was across Freedom Square today. So quite young I had the imprint in my mind of a multicultural society. But also my grandmother was white. The idea of separation between the races was for me quite strange, so to speak. At any rate we went down to Durban when I was about 5 or so and shortly after that my mother died, and so I was raised and so were my brothers by our domestic worker, who was African. I was raised and brought up by an African woman. Now the difficulties we would have were many. But one of them that stuck out in my mind was, there use to be a thing called the Black Jacks. The Black Jacks use to run around neighbourhoods, weather they were Indian or White neighbourhoods or the town. And their job was to see that African people were not in the city after a certain hour in the day. It was a kind of curfew. So by 6 o’clock all African people would have to be out of the city and they had to be in their townships, and if they were caught in the city they were arrested if they did not have a permit. It was quite a problem because sometimes, Anna would be carrying my brother on her back, he was about 1 years-old. And the Black Jacks would come and attack. We all like scattering all over the show, trying either to hide Anna or grab my brother. These incidents when I was quite young lead to have quite a shape on my mind. My family also was quite a political family so these are the issues we will talk about.
Aishah
Q: Since I had never experienced, and was not around during Apartheid times can you tell me what it was about?
Yunus
A: Apartheid had many parts to it, one part was around property, black people could not own property and in the whole of South Africa the entire black population lived on 13% of the land. That was one problem. The second problem was education; the government would spend R100 for a white child but only R13 on a black child. As a result of that there was a huge gap in education, in skills and so on. The next kind of problems we had were job reservation. Only certain kind of jobs could be performed by black people and for the most part these jobs were quite lineal. And then over time they got to become artisans and so on. That was another aspect of the problem. Then of course there was the notion that black people could not vote, participate in the elections of governments and that itself is a problem. But related to all of this was really a repressive and oppressive circumstance on black people in general but more particularly with African people.
Aishah
Q: How did you feel about the government and its laws at that time?
Yunus
A: These laws offended my own beliefs, and my beliefs are rooted in an Islamic outlook. Our family had quite an Islamic outlook, so it offends our Islamic outlook in many ways. Islam does not permit and nor is it tolerant of any kind of racism. But it does not also permit any kind of class based society. So it was an offence to our religious beliefs, it was also an offence to our personal dignity. In offended me in many practical ways for example, because I had a white grandmother I am classified as a Cape, Malay/Indian. Now which school do I go to, do I go to an Indian school or do I go to a Coloured school, and these problems played me all my school years, my University years and so on. You had to get a permit to go to an Indian school and so on. A good example is that I use to live next door to an Indian school, now I want to go to school but the headmaster said no you can’t come to school, because they see your birth certificate first and it says Cape, Malay/ Indian whatever that means. Now you can’t go to school. So you can not go to that school unless you duck under the desks when the inspectors come. It was these series of things that made you seem different and so on. Naturally it was you could say your taqdeer, you were driven into resistance.
Aishah
Q: What were your feelings towards white supremacy?
Yunus
A: Agh, Islam doesn’t even acknowledge that, we don’t even acknowledge that. We think of it as rubbish, because our ideas of civilization are shaped by the Islamic experience. Now my father is quite schooled in Islam and he was quite aware early in life that medicine, even the idea of democracy had its first birth in Islam. Human Right revolution took place, was with Prophet Muhammad ((P.B.U.H). He was the first of the revolutionaries to bring about social change in society. The idea of supremacy when you come from a tradition that spans hundreds of years, that is rich in all aspects of life, from art, to medicine, to engineering and we are in a sense Indian people as well. We come from a civilization that has three, four thousand years. When white civilization was in their dark ages, you can find castles and advancement in Islamic civilization. The idea that some boertjie would think he is superior in that circumstance was just ridiculous.
Aishah
Q: Were you ever arrested or detained, if you have please elaborate?
Yunus
A: I first got detained I think when I was a student in 1978; I got detained for two weeks. And then in 1980 I got detained again from April till August. And then I went in to detention again in 1984 and again in 1985, so lots of times in and out of prison. I seem to have spent most of my youth in jail.
Aishah
Q: Can you tell me of an experience which is still vibrant in your memory related to torture or anything?
Yunus
A: I don’t think school children should worry about all that. But I am a victim of torture. In 1984 the ANC was going to hold a conference called the Kaw-Moye conference that was going to define the strategies and tactics the ANC was going to adopt for the years to follow. They sent in a senior leader to come and consult with other democratic organizations in the country to get their views on a range of issues. His name was Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, and our job was to house him and look after him, arrange the consultation and return him safely back outside the country. The security branch became aware of his presence and they captured me and my brother Mo, they would torture us in order to say where he is. They thought he was on a military mission here to bomb up the place, because there was a whole lot of bombs’ going of at the same time. So that was one period of torture and it featured in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Mind you, most of the senior leaders of the ANC were Muslims. The Muslim community has got a long and wonderful tradition of fighting oppression.
Aishah
Q: Were you a member of the military wing of the ANC if you were what your experience was like?
Yunus
A: Yes, I was a member of the military wing called ‘Imkonto-we-sizwe’ (MK); it means ‘the spear of the nation’. Our experiences in the military wing of the ANC would range from counting intelligence to logistics and so on. It was the most trying front of the struggle; the struggle was ranged on three fronts. One front was called the ‘military struggle’. The next was called the ‘mass struggle. The third was called the ‘diplomatic struggle’. So the three spheres of struggle the ‘Imkonto-we-sizwe’ was the most difficult because if you were caught most of the MK soldiers were killed. Some would go and stand trial and if you were sent to prison, you got quite long sentences from 15 to 20 years and so on. So military work was difficult it was trial.
Aishah
Q: How did you react to the laws such as the pass law and group areas act?
Yunus
A: In general I think all African people, all black people rejected it. And bitterly, for example with Indian people you couldn’t buy property wherever you did.
So you only had a few Indian areas, and because there was so little land available to the Indian people the prices of the land was just sky rocket. An ordinary family struggled to buy a house, and if they did by a house, your house could have been expropriated, meaning it could have been taken away by the state if it was in the wrong area. We had all these problems. In general these things were hated by the people.
Aishah
Q: What were some of the most gruesome tortures people encountered; did you see or experience any, example the neck lacing?
Yunus
A: Neck lacing was a reaction at some mass meeting or rally or something. Someone would be known as a spy and others would throw a tyre around his or her neck and set him alight. It was horrible. I remember one instance in Durban, we were in a March and someone identified someone as an Impempi, meaning a spy. This crowd about 50 or 100 people started to turn on him; they would hit him with like iron and sticks and so on. It was unbearable to watch. My brother Mo and I just threw our bodies over him and tried to lead him to safety. But it is an unforgivable barbaric reaction of people to collaboration. So you’ve had gruesome stories, on the other hand the state use to infiltrate and subvert ordinary human beings because either he was gay or in debt. They would offer him money to spy on people. In this way it turned people against each other, so the tactics the National Party and white was using was equally horrible, and that made people to become spies. They were not spying out of their own volition but be that as it may, it was the time and the tactic. The reaction to the tactic was as bad as the tactic itself. But it was the time of war.
Aishah
Q: Did you ever have a run-in with the law and what was the experience like?
Yunus
A: Of course, we had many run-ins with the law; just to go to school was a run-in with the law, just to go to University was a run-in with the law. But in general we had contempt for the law. This is not the Quraan; this is a most despicable set of rules. So to have a run-in with the law is to be on the right course, because you were trying to change the law. When laws become unjust, you should be able to challenge these laws. The whole idea of a ‘Holy War’, the whole idea of resistance against unjust laws infact finds it’s origin in Islam. The notion that you must fight against oppression. To fight these laws is to walk in the path of Islam.
Aishah
Q: Have any of your fellow activists reached high status among government and do you still keep in touch with them?
Yunus
A: Yes, like my commander was Jacob Zuma, and yes I do still keep in touch with him. And Mac Maharaja and Thabo Mbeki, most of these guys. We almost grew up in the struggle together and we do keep in touch with each other.
Aishah
Q: Would you like to add on any point that would interest others?
Yunus
A: Yes. There is no point in time where you would find a society that is perfect, and so towards South Africa. In the first struggle, the struggle was to try and create laws that are equal based, meaning you acknowledge the rights of people and the struggle now, is to ensure that governments policy are pro poor. They are supportive of poor people. Your additions now to the struggle are around how to avoid the abuse of power. Whether it is Thabo Mbeki wanting to run for the third term or using the organs of the state to attack his political opponents. Those are examples of abuse of the law or abuse of power; these are struggles of today that are still relevant.
Aishah
Q: What future do we as Indian youth have in this country?
Yunus
A: I think you would have the same future as I had. I think Indian youth presently have more of an opportunity to play in society. At a level of jobs, the labour market seems to have a huge potential for qualified Indian people. So at a level of jobs there is an enormous potential. There’s also great potential in business and so on. But I don’t think people define their life whether they Indian or not. Our society looks at everyone as equal. So regardless of whether you Indian or African and so on, you would still get these opportunities. Alhamdurillah. I think Indian youth have got some challenge to play, and I would be hopeful that they would become more community spirited, community minded engaging with the troubles of the time.
Aishah
Q: What is your message for the people of South Africa today?
Yunus
A: I think we carrying a continuing burden to promote an advanced struggle for human rights. If I could give you an example that would make sense to you. From the time of the Hijrah our Prophet (P.B.U.H) fought to do two things. The first thing he fought for or rather against was the idea of idol worshipping. But although he fought against that he fought for these things, equality, an egalitarian, meaning we should not spend all our time amending huge fortunes of wealth, we should use wealth and take care of the poor. He also fought for the idea that we should take care of the orphans, widows and so on. He fought also that your society to be constructed to such a way that all people contribute and participate and by consensus take decisions that affect them. That is what we may call democracy. So these are things he fought for, and that is what he fought against. When I ask myself what are the challenges facing us they are the same challenges that faced our Prophet (P.B.U.H) in his time which is to eradicate the poverty, to take care of the vunrable people in society. These things have not gone away. We can’t spend all our days in the mosque reading our salaah as we should, but we should equally spend time fixing the society. When I think about the Prophet (P.B.U.H) life he had two concerns. His first concern was his relationship with God (Allah) and calling the Ummah to pay attention to that relationship. But the other side he was also calling people to pay attention to the relationship with each other, so this duality, our relationship with God, our relationship with each other remains the burden and the duty of the Ummah to address in each time and I think that challenge continues with us today and its not good enough for us to say African people are not Muslims, we should not worry about them, infact all the people were not Muslims until the Prophet (P.B.U.H) converted them. So the Prophet (P.B.U.H) did not distinguish between who were Muslims and who were not. He attended to the people and I think that is the central challenge that remains with us to this day and in this place. We are surrounded by a sea of poverty in South Africa. That explains why we are having all these fights with Jacob Zuma and Thabo Mbeki. Jacob Zuma says we should change our policies so that we address the poor and don’t be so concerned with the BE policies that make millions for a few black people. We should be concerned about the millions of black people that are living in abject poverty, so that fight as you can see take place between them continues to this day.
Added on information:
Yunus
You asked me a very interesting question about some kind of experience, of the experience of torture. To me the most tearing experience of torture was when I was in the torture chamber and they have five or so security Bloch people would torture and put a bag over my head cutting off my oxygen supply as they were hitting me on my body. So what carried me through that entire experience was to be able to zikr. What I learnt in the torture chamber was that what it means to say, Ashaduallahillahaillallah. Although by enchanting that I learnt over time as I became an older man there is truly no God but God (Allah) and in difficult times making zikr and reading your salaah is absolutely critically important. It gives you strength and defeats your enemies. Even when I was in torture then I was able to survive. So to you who are growing up, I really, I erge you to remember your salaah to zikr often as you can, these things help you as life marches on.
Jazakallah
Research: www.google.co.za
April 19, 2000
Amnesty Decision on torture of ANC activist
The Amnesty Committee of the TRC has granted amnesty to Durban's C.R. Swart Security Policeman, Christo Nel for his role in the torture of Yunus Shaik an ANC activist in July 1985.
Nel was based at the C.R. Swart Square when he detained Shaik and other members of his family.
During his testimony before the Amnesty Committee on April 10, 2000 in at Pinetown Magistrate's Court, Nel said he had received instructions to fetch Shaik from the cells at C.R. Swart Square where he was being detained and take him to the offices of the Security Branch in the building.
During the interrogation, Shaik was tortured and Nel was instructed to assist by holding one of Shaik's arms during such torture.
Shaik was present at the hearing and represented himself. He made a statement in which he detailed the consequences both to himself and his family of the detentions. Shaik indicated that he was not opposing the application and confirmed Nel's account as being a full disclosure of what transpired.
As the Amnesty Committee, we are satisfied that Nel has made a full disclosure of all relevant facts. We are satisfied that the applicant has satisfied the requirements of the Act and grant amnesty in relation to torture of Yunus Shaik during 1985 at C.R. Swart Square, Durban.
Transcipt of the matter is available on request.
Inquiries: Mbulelo Sompetha 082 452 7870.
STATEMENT BY THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION: CHANGE OF VENUE FOR AMNESTY HEARINGS IN DURBAN
Journalists are advised that the Pinetown Magistrate's Court will, as from January 19, be our venue for different sets of amnesty applications by former Durban security policemen currently being held at the Durban Christian Centre.
Matters on roll include an amnesty application of Christo Nel, for his role in the torture of Mr Yunus Shaik in 1985. Police tortured Shaik because they thought he was keeping a car which belonged to Mr Ebraihim Ismail Ebrahim. They claimed the car was being used to transport weapons from Swaziland to South Africa.
Other matters will be announced in due course.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Interview with Azhar Cachalia
Interview with Apartheid Activist
Azhar Cachalia
Date: 10 July 2007
Audio appliance: video camera
Name: Azhar Cachalia
Date of birth: 26/06/1956
Occupation: Judge of the Appeal Court
E-mail: cachalia@icon.co.za
Questions:
Can you tell me something about your childhood and at what age did you realize you were living in an abnormal society?
How did you get involved on politics or political resistance?
Did you ever have a run-in with the law at that time?
What was your attitude like towards policies after those run-ins or bad experiences?
Did you ever imagine a change would have come in your lifetime?
What was the most significant event which you can recall during your time as an apartheid activist?
Do you still have contact with your fellow activists that may be in the government at the moment and do you keep in touch with them?
Were you ever arrested or detained?
The torture you experienced while detained was it excessive?
Were you an MK (Imkonto-we-sizwe), which is a member of the military wing of the ANC at the time?
Did you feel the efforts of your struggle were in vain at that time?
How did you feel about those in power at the time, that is what did you think of white supremacy at the time?
How did you react to the many different laws e.g. the pass law, group areas act etc?
Did you ever hear or see neck lacing that people who spied for the apartheid state were burnt alive by a tyre placed over them?
What do you think of the current democracy, is it what you had foreseen?
What message would you like to share with the people of South Africa today?
Finally, are you hopeful of South Africa’s future?
Interview:
Aishah
Q: Can you tell me something about your childhood and at what age did you realize you were living in an abnormal society?
Azhar
A: I was born in Scotland. The reason that I was born in Scotland was that my father went over to study medicine in Adenbera. That was after he was not able to get in at WITS University. The reason for that as he explained to me was, there was a quota at South African Universities even at WITS, and they would allow only a certain number of black students to study medicine. So he couldn’t get in and went abroad. He was married here, and then he and my mum went overseas. I was born there with my three brothers. I suppose that was the first, when we first understood why I was born in another country. As I grew older my father explained what that was about and then I also came from what they would call a politicised family. My fathers grand uncles name was Ahmed Cachalia, a close associative of Mahat Magandi. In the early part of the century he was involved in opposing policies, it was long before the National Party came in power in 1948. Talking about the 1920’s and 1930’s, efforts that were made by the government to discriminate against black people in general but in this case Indian people and Indian traders. He was involved in many of those struggles. So I suppose that story was told over different generations. After Ahmed Cachalia, Ahmed’s two sons, Yusuf Cachalia and Molvi Cachalia. Yusuf Cachalia became the secretary of the Congress Movement together with Walter Sisulu in the 1980’s and he was very instrumental in organizing the Defiance Campaign. The Defiance Campaign was aimed at 6 apartheid laws that included the group areas act, the mixed marriages act and a few others. He was involved in that, he also became a very close friend of Nelson Mandela’s. That was the family I grew up in and we would constantly hear stories. I think specifically of my uncle, Yusuf Cachalia. He was banned in 1964. Effectively he was not only prohibited from been involved in any political activity but he was also restricted socially, that means he could not associate with two or three people at the same time. He left for work; he was allowed to be out of his house from 7 in the morning till 6 in the evening. He was house arrested, so at night he was not allowed to go out and so in weekends he would stay at home. So we were told what was happening, why uncle Yusuf can’t come out of the house. I suppose I had not much of a choice.
Aishah
Q: How did you get involved on politics or political resistance?
Azhar
A: Certainly in my generation, of me and many like I was that what happened in 1960 had a very deep effect on many of us. I just remember the country was burning and it was a strange thing because there was a mixture of fear because you didn’t know what was happening. People were burning things down and so on. On the one hand it is true people were fearful. But on the other hand one felt that year was very difficult of very serious resistance. Even though it had really started with school children. It was something that had touched many of us and I suppose at that stage in 1976 I was just about 19 or 20 years old. As a result of that I and others in my community got together and we formed a student organization called ‘Benoni Student Movement’. I lived in Benoni at the time and also when I was in University I joined student organizations there. In a sense that is what mattered interest and involvement at the time.
Aishah
Q: Did you ever have a run-in with the law at that time?
Azhar
A: I first experienced a run in with the law in June 1978. I and my brother and some other students in Benoni had distributed leaflets at the local school. The leaflets had called on students and really Indian learners at the time. Infact it never asks them to do anything it just said they must remember what had happened two years ago in 1976. This is what’s happening in the country and it’s very important that they understand that on this day, the 16th of June. Any they had discovered that I and many others had been involved in distributing this. So they arrested me and few others including my younger brother Firoze. We spent just over a week in jail and they treated us quite badly, certainly initially they treated us badly. So when you talk about run in with the law that was my first encounter with the security police.
Aishah
Q: What was your attitude like towards policies after those run-ins or bad experiences?
Azhar
A: It is a strange thing, I suppose people have different reactions, different responses to an encounter with the security police. I don’t want to sound too brave, obviously we were afraid and those sort of things. But it is a strange thing when they push you like that and you can have one of two responses, you can’t be the same so you almost have a choice. Your choice is that you change your life, ignore everything and you get on with your life or you confront what was happening to you. In my case we decided to fight back. Twenty, thirty years later it might sound brave but we weren’t deliberately been brave or stupid or anything like that. I mean when somebody humiliates you, you going to fight back. That is your natural response. The response that isn’t natural is to run away. So what I did was quite natural.
Aishah
Q: Did you ever imagine a change would have come in your lifetime?
Azhar
A: No, I actually didn’t. I once gave somebody an interview and this person wrote a book on the 1980’s. The title of the book is called ‘Beyond Our Wildest Dreams’. When we started in about 1980, 1981, there was this massive army well organized even though backward in many ways. It had a strong self-belief and was very determined to crush any resistance to apartheid and to white rule. I did not think, which ultimately happened they would simply collapse, run away and disappear, that was not going to happen. If we were able to mount sufficient pressure on them in the country and then supported by the international community, we would create enough pressure to at least force them to come and negotiate about the future of the country. I did not think the end would come as quickly as it did. I always believed whether it was my time or beyond that, that there would come a time were they would not be able to hold on any longer.
Aishah
Q: What was the most significant event which you can recall during your time as an apartheid activist?
Azhar
A: There were many, but the strange one which had the biggest impact on me, ironically was not what the apartheid government or the white government did to me. But it was an incident which I had with Mrs Wini Mandela. What happened was that she had gotten involved with a group of youngsters in the 1980’s. In effect she was responsible for the kidnapping of a young boy and ultimately that boy was killed. The court had found her not guilty. But I and my colleges had spoken outwardly against her, there were many in black community opposed to what we did. It’s a sort of thing that you don’t criticise your own, you criticise others. We felt if we were going to make the society a decent one then it’s not good enough to speak against your opponents. You got to speak against your own people when they act in a way that is contrary to what the struggle is about. The struggle was for a society that would protect human rights and when we ourselves started violating people’s rights then that is something we ought to fight against. So that is the incident that comes, but there are many, but that is the one that comes to mind immediately.
Aishah
Q: Do you still have contact with your fellow activists that may be in the government at the moment and do you keep in touch with them?
Azhar
A: Yes I do. Some may be in government others in business. I keep in touch with my colleges, my comrades from those days.
Aishah
Q: Were you ever arrested or detained, except for that one week?
Azhar
A: I have been arrested about five times over in 1980’s. On three of those occasions, one for a week, another time about three weeks, on the third occasion about two months. That was during the State of Emergency Regulations. I had three detentions and addition to that I was banned few times, that means I would be prohibited by the head minister of police. We don’t do that today because it would be unconstitutional and illegal if the police did that. Those days they could do that, which could ban you. That meant I could not join or participate in activities of various organizations, such as the United Democratic Front and Transvaal Indian Congress. I could not participate in any of those organizations. I was restricted in a number of gatherings I attended.
Aishah
Q: The torture you experienced while detained was it excessive?
Azhar
A: Torture has a particular legal meaning. So if they slap you that is not torture. Torture is really when they inflict unbearable pain on you, either for the purpose of extracting information or for some other reason. During one of my detentions I was put in the boot of a car and driven away. They took me from my parent’s home and they drove me down a side road and they said I must get out and get into the boot of the car. It was quite frightening. Then they put me in the boot of the car and drove off and I’m like were are these people taking me to. Then ultimately they arrived at a mind dump, so they opened the boot of the car and marched me to the top of it and started hitting me. One of the things they use to do is called hooding; you saw those pictures of what happened in Abu Gurayr in Iraq. The Americans were torturing detainee’s infact that is what they did to me. They put a bag on my head and choked and hit me. That was on one occasion, on the other occasions they always threatened to do something but they never inflict any bodily harm. It was not because they were nice or anything, it’s because well I was well known after my first detention so sometimes they a bit careful when you well known. They think you have a big mouth and you would speak if they did something cruel. They a bit careful, maybe that was the reason I’m not quite sure why they didn’t hit me the other times. It’s not that I deserved a hiding.
Q: Were you an MK (Imkonto-we-sizwe), which is a member of the military wing of the ANC at the time?
A: No, I never joined the MK. In part I suppose I could have, there were people who were braver than I was who joined. But I also believed that it wasn’t so much passive resistance but I think what I did believe was that it was very important that we tried to what I would called defend the legal space that which we were working. So that it was very important that we tried to pursue more and more people to be involved in non-violent opposition because when they force you into violence you become smaller and smaller groups, lose your impact. So I was never opposed or acted to have a principle opposition to those who decided to take up arms. But I thought certainly for my own contribution, to avoid taking up arms as long as possible.
Aishah
Q: Did you feel the efforts of your struggle were in vain at that time?
Azhar
A: No, well I think you go through moments of weakness. When you alone in a cell on a Saturday night and it’s cold. You looking outside and the rest of the world seem to be going on with their business. You sitting in this cell all alone and you wonder, is it worth it. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have doubts of weakness. So yes I did have my moments of weakness. But mercifully I think my moments of strength out numbered my moments of weakness. So at the time I never thought what I was doing was wrong, hopeless or not worth it.
Aishah
Q: How did you feel about those in power at the time, that is what did you think of white supremacy at the time?
Azhar
A: Let’s make a difference between those in power and white supremacy. I always believed that you see that in all political systems where there is oppression or exploitation, they do it for economical reasons. They don’t really do it because they believe you are inferior. Or that George Bush believes that Muslims are inferior, they do that because they have certain political goals and certain political interests. It is true that part of the process of then justifying why they are doing this because you may be inferior. They create rationalism and justifications in their own minds that you may be inferior. I knew that in fighting white supremacy and fighting against them I was really fighting against a system rather than the individuals who had prejudices. I realized once we change the system then we didn’t want to replace in a sense bad white people with bad black people because then you have not changed anything. You have just changed the colour of oppression. Obviously if somebody hits you or is ugly to you the individual, you don’t have a completely neutral feeling, he is not a robot who is hitting you or abusing you or swearing you. You have difficult relationships with those people and you may even dislike them. I can’t say I hated nor had strong feelings against white people for example. I never felt that way. I knew what I was fighting; I was fighting a political system not whites or an individual.
Aishah
Q: How did you react to the many different laws e.g. the pass law, group areas act etc?
Azhar
A: Where ever I could I broke those laws. Indian people were not allowed for example to enter African areas without a permit. I would go into those areas, occasionally I got arrested for that. It’s not like I could have respected any of those laws. When you say how I reacted well I despised the laws and I knew we had to change them. I was not neutral. When they banned me, they detained me under the Internal Security Act; those I thought were quite despicable laws. I was quite determined to oppose those laws and fight them.
Aishah
Q: Did you ever hear or see neck lacing that people who spied for the apartheid state were burnt alive by a tyre placed over them?
Azhar
A: No, I never saw one myself, mercifully not. I saw video’s of it. I saw it as awful and terrible.
Aishah
Q: What do you think of the current democracy, is it what you had foreseen?
Azhar
A: I think that to take a balanced view of it, I think in general it is true we have made a lot of progress. I think we are better of as a country today then we ever were. We have removed rationally discrimitary laws. That people who were excluded from politically and economical power have access to it. I think there is much we can be grateful for; I think it is important that we record that. At the same time I often feel that many of us have betrayed our goals. One of our goals was to create a non-racial society. I see a lot of racism among white people. But there is a lot of racism among all communities. That is not only in the white community it may be in the community that you and I live in, it could be in other communities. So I see a lot of people. I often look at what people in the government, in the ruling party, they manipulate race and ethnically for their own political ends. When they do that I think they are behaving no differently to the way the apartheid government behaved. That undermines our goal on racial society. Many of us have lost our way, we tend to be greedy and materialistic and that means that we, not realizing that we contribute to making the society unstable. There are too many people that are poor and under privileged and they see that those who have political power, those who are connected and who have friends that are connected are people who are making the money are doing very well at least in their minds. So they feel angry, resentful and excluded. There are some very serious questions we must ask ourselves. If I think down 13 years, down our democracy I worry about, I certainly would have hoped that we would have gone further down the road in dealing with those problems. I don’t think we are doing enough.
Aishah
Q: What message would you like to share with the people of South Africa today?
Azhar
A: For me the most important message is that we must never forget what happened and that is not because we must exact revenge. But we must understand what the struggle was about. I talk to you and you talk to me and we must understand the values that we sort to uphold. For me the message is not that we were fighting for political power, we were fighting to uphold certain values. Non-rationalism, protection of human rights those were the values that informed, caused us the way we felt. My message is that in whatever we do today we must remember and continue to be guided by the same principles and some values in the new South Africa. Those of us who fought for the new South Africa believed in then. You can play different roles, you can be an activist but you can be a doctor, a molana, a lawyer, a teacher, you can be whatever you want to. I think there are certain basic values that exist across the society. If we defend those values then we have hope to build a better society. That would be my message.
Aishah
Q: Finally, are you hopeful of South Africa’s future?
Azhar
A: I am always hopeful, again sometimes I feel pessimistic when I see some of the things happening. I see a lot of inequality, I see a lot of crime, and I see a lot of massive social problems that distresses me. But I’m always hopeful because there maybe people like you who are concerned about these issues. Hopefully you want to live in a better society. I’m hopeful there would always be people who will carry the torch, the beacon. There are things that improve the society. I think there are more good people and committed people in the society than those who are not. Thank You
Thank You
Done by: Aishah Moga
Research: www.google.co.za
SECRETARY FOR SAFETY AND SECURITY
Azhar Cachalia was born in Scotland in 1956. He attended school in Scotland and in Benoni (Gauteng) and matriculated at Damelin College in Johannesburg in 1974. Between 1975 and 1980, he studied at the University of Durban Westville and at Wits University, having changed his course of study from science to the arts.
In 1987 he was active in the Benoni Students' Movement and was detained for the first time. In 1981 he was elected Vice-President of the Black Students' Society at Wits and was detained, with his brother Firoz (now a member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature), for three weeks. Immediately thereafter he was served with a banning order which confined him to the magisterial district of Benoni for 2 years. When the banning order was lifted in June 1983, he was elected to the executive of the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC), and thereafter held office in the United Democratic Front (UDF) at provincial and national level until 1990. He was both banned and detained for his involvement in political activities
In 1983, Azhar graduated with an LLB from Wits University. He was admitted as an attorney in 1986.
In 1986, Azhar was detained for six weeks under the State of Emergency Regulations, and, a few months later, served with another restriction order. In 1987 he was detained twice by the Security Branch of the SAP. In 1988, a new restriction order prohibited him from participating in the activities of the UDF.
In 1988, Azhar joined the Johannesburg law firm Cheadle, Thompson and Haysom, where, until recently he was its managing partner. He is one of the co-authors of "Fundamental Human Rights in the New Constitution" and he holds a Higher Diploma in Income Tax Law with Fink Haysom and H Cheadle. He was also the firm's managing partner.
In June 1994, Azhar became a member of Minister Mufamadi's Interim Advisory Team. He worked as a technical expert on the Constitutional Assembly theme committee on Security and Defence, and convened the team which drafted the new Police Act.
He is married to Welfare Director General, Dr Leila Patel, and they have two daughters. His father Dr Ismail Cachalia is a member of the National Assembly.
Azhar Cachalia was appointed as Secretary for Safety and Security on 8 January 1996. In this capacity he is the Minister for Safety and Security's chief policy advisor. He is also responsible for ensuring proper Government overseeing over policing matters. The implementation of the National Crime Prevention Strategy falls within his sphere of responsibility.
"Beyond Our Wildest Dreams"The United Democratic Front and the Transformation of South Africa
by Ineke van Kessel
384 pages, 9 b&w illus. and 3 maps • 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Cloth ISBN 0-8139-1861-8 $55.00 • Paper ISBN 0-8139-1868-5 $22.50
As anyone who lived through that decade knows, the 1980s in South Africa were marked by protest, violent confrontation, and international sanctions. Internally, the country saw a bewildering growth of grassroots organizations--including trade unions, civic associations in the black townships, student and other youth organizations, church-based groups, and women's movements--many of which operated under the umbrella of the United Democratic Front (UDF). "Beyond Our Wildest Dreams" explores the often conflicted relationship between the UDF's large-scale resistance to apartheid and its everyday struggles at the local level.
In hindsight, the UDF can be seen as a transitional front, preparing the ground for leaders of the liberation movement to return from exile or prison and take over power. But the founding fathers of the UDF initially had far more modest ambitions. As Azhar Cachalia, one of its core activists, later explained: "Look, when we founded the UDF, we had never in our wildest dreams expected that events would take off in the way they did. What happened was beyond everybody's expectations."
Interviews with Cachalia and other leading personalities in the UDF examine the organization's workings at the national level, while stories of ordinary people, collected by the author, illuminate the grassroots activism so important to the UDF's success. Even in South Africa, writes Ineke van Kessel, who covered the anti-apartheid movement as a journalist, resistance was not the obvious option for ordinary citizens. Van Kessel shows how these people were mobilized into forming a radical social movement that developed a highly flexible and innovative form of resistance that ultimately ended apartheid.
Reviews
"Based on thorough, meticulous, and discerning scholarship, van Kessel's book shows a mature understanding of South Africa's political dynamics. Outstandingly perceptive while broadly sympathetic, van Kessel achieves an admirable objectivity regarding the foibles and weaknesses of the actors in her story. She succeeds in conveying the real texture of politics on the ground."
--Gail M. Gerhart, American University in Cairo
The Author
Ineke van Kessel is a researcher at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, The Netherlands.
Azhar Cachalia
Date: 10 July 2007
Audio appliance: video camera
Name: Azhar Cachalia
Date of birth: 26/06/1956
Occupation: Judge of the Appeal Court
E-mail: cachalia@icon.co.za
Questions:
Can you tell me something about your childhood and at what age did you realize you were living in an abnormal society?
How did you get involved on politics or political resistance?
Did you ever have a run-in with the law at that time?
What was your attitude like towards policies after those run-ins or bad experiences?
Did you ever imagine a change would have come in your lifetime?
What was the most significant event which you can recall during your time as an apartheid activist?
Do you still have contact with your fellow activists that may be in the government at the moment and do you keep in touch with them?
Were you ever arrested or detained?
The torture you experienced while detained was it excessive?
Were you an MK (Imkonto-we-sizwe), which is a member of the military wing of the ANC at the time?
Did you feel the efforts of your struggle were in vain at that time?
How did you feel about those in power at the time, that is what did you think of white supremacy at the time?
How did you react to the many different laws e.g. the pass law, group areas act etc?
Did you ever hear or see neck lacing that people who spied for the apartheid state were burnt alive by a tyre placed over them?
What do you think of the current democracy, is it what you had foreseen?
What message would you like to share with the people of South Africa today?
Finally, are you hopeful of South Africa’s future?
Interview:
Aishah
Q: Can you tell me something about your childhood and at what age did you realize you were living in an abnormal society?
Azhar
A: I was born in Scotland. The reason that I was born in Scotland was that my father went over to study medicine in Adenbera. That was after he was not able to get in at WITS University. The reason for that as he explained to me was, there was a quota at South African Universities even at WITS, and they would allow only a certain number of black students to study medicine. So he couldn’t get in and went abroad. He was married here, and then he and my mum went overseas. I was born there with my three brothers. I suppose that was the first, when we first understood why I was born in another country. As I grew older my father explained what that was about and then I also came from what they would call a politicised family. My fathers grand uncles name was Ahmed Cachalia, a close associative of Mahat Magandi. In the early part of the century he was involved in opposing policies, it was long before the National Party came in power in 1948. Talking about the 1920’s and 1930’s, efforts that were made by the government to discriminate against black people in general but in this case Indian people and Indian traders. He was involved in many of those struggles. So I suppose that story was told over different generations. After Ahmed Cachalia, Ahmed’s two sons, Yusuf Cachalia and Molvi Cachalia. Yusuf Cachalia became the secretary of the Congress Movement together with Walter Sisulu in the 1980’s and he was very instrumental in organizing the Defiance Campaign. The Defiance Campaign was aimed at 6 apartheid laws that included the group areas act, the mixed marriages act and a few others. He was involved in that, he also became a very close friend of Nelson Mandela’s. That was the family I grew up in and we would constantly hear stories. I think specifically of my uncle, Yusuf Cachalia. He was banned in 1964. Effectively he was not only prohibited from been involved in any political activity but he was also restricted socially, that means he could not associate with two or three people at the same time. He left for work; he was allowed to be out of his house from 7 in the morning till 6 in the evening. He was house arrested, so at night he was not allowed to go out and so in weekends he would stay at home. So we were told what was happening, why uncle Yusuf can’t come out of the house. I suppose I had not much of a choice.
Aishah
Q: How did you get involved on politics or political resistance?
Azhar
A: Certainly in my generation, of me and many like I was that what happened in 1960 had a very deep effect on many of us. I just remember the country was burning and it was a strange thing because there was a mixture of fear because you didn’t know what was happening. People were burning things down and so on. On the one hand it is true people were fearful. But on the other hand one felt that year was very difficult of very serious resistance. Even though it had really started with school children. It was something that had touched many of us and I suppose at that stage in 1976 I was just about 19 or 20 years old. As a result of that I and others in my community got together and we formed a student organization called ‘Benoni Student Movement’. I lived in Benoni at the time and also when I was in University I joined student organizations there. In a sense that is what mattered interest and involvement at the time.
Aishah
Q: Did you ever have a run-in with the law at that time?
Azhar
A: I first experienced a run in with the law in June 1978. I and my brother and some other students in Benoni had distributed leaflets at the local school. The leaflets had called on students and really Indian learners at the time. Infact it never asks them to do anything it just said they must remember what had happened two years ago in 1976. This is what’s happening in the country and it’s very important that they understand that on this day, the 16th of June. Any they had discovered that I and many others had been involved in distributing this. So they arrested me and few others including my younger brother Firoze. We spent just over a week in jail and they treated us quite badly, certainly initially they treated us badly. So when you talk about run in with the law that was my first encounter with the security police.
Aishah
Q: What was your attitude like towards policies after those run-ins or bad experiences?
Azhar
A: It is a strange thing, I suppose people have different reactions, different responses to an encounter with the security police. I don’t want to sound too brave, obviously we were afraid and those sort of things. But it is a strange thing when they push you like that and you can have one of two responses, you can’t be the same so you almost have a choice. Your choice is that you change your life, ignore everything and you get on with your life or you confront what was happening to you. In my case we decided to fight back. Twenty, thirty years later it might sound brave but we weren’t deliberately been brave or stupid or anything like that. I mean when somebody humiliates you, you going to fight back. That is your natural response. The response that isn’t natural is to run away. So what I did was quite natural.
Aishah
Q: Did you ever imagine a change would have come in your lifetime?
Azhar
A: No, I actually didn’t. I once gave somebody an interview and this person wrote a book on the 1980’s. The title of the book is called ‘Beyond Our Wildest Dreams’. When we started in about 1980, 1981, there was this massive army well organized even though backward in many ways. It had a strong self-belief and was very determined to crush any resistance to apartheid and to white rule. I did not think, which ultimately happened they would simply collapse, run away and disappear, that was not going to happen. If we were able to mount sufficient pressure on them in the country and then supported by the international community, we would create enough pressure to at least force them to come and negotiate about the future of the country. I did not think the end would come as quickly as it did. I always believed whether it was my time or beyond that, that there would come a time were they would not be able to hold on any longer.
Aishah
Q: What was the most significant event which you can recall during your time as an apartheid activist?
Azhar
A: There were many, but the strange one which had the biggest impact on me, ironically was not what the apartheid government or the white government did to me. But it was an incident which I had with Mrs Wini Mandela. What happened was that she had gotten involved with a group of youngsters in the 1980’s. In effect she was responsible for the kidnapping of a young boy and ultimately that boy was killed. The court had found her not guilty. But I and my colleges had spoken outwardly against her, there were many in black community opposed to what we did. It’s a sort of thing that you don’t criticise your own, you criticise others. We felt if we were going to make the society a decent one then it’s not good enough to speak against your opponents. You got to speak against your own people when they act in a way that is contrary to what the struggle is about. The struggle was for a society that would protect human rights and when we ourselves started violating people’s rights then that is something we ought to fight against. So that is the incident that comes, but there are many, but that is the one that comes to mind immediately.
Aishah
Q: Do you still have contact with your fellow activists that may be in the government at the moment and do you keep in touch with them?
Azhar
A: Yes I do. Some may be in government others in business. I keep in touch with my colleges, my comrades from those days.
Aishah
Q: Were you ever arrested or detained, except for that one week?
Azhar
A: I have been arrested about five times over in 1980’s. On three of those occasions, one for a week, another time about three weeks, on the third occasion about two months. That was during the State of Emergency Regulations. I had three detentions and addition to that I was banned few times, that means I would be prohibited by the head minister of police. We don’t do that today because it would be unconstitutional and illegal if the police did that. Those days they could do that, which could ban you. That meant I could not join or participate in activities of various organizations, such as the United Democratic Front and Transvaal Indian Congress. I could not participate in any of those organizations. I was restricted in a number of gatherings I attended.
Aishah
Q: The torture you experienced while detained was it excessive?
Azhar
A: Torture has a particular legal meaning. So if they slap you that is not torture. Torture is really when they inflict unbearable pain on you, either for the purpose of extracting information or for some other reason. During one of my detentions I was put in the boot of a car and driven away. They took me from my parent’s home and they drove me down a side road and they said I must get out and get into the boot of the car. It was quite frightening. Then they put me in the boot of the car and drove off and I’m like were are these people taking me to. Then ultimately they arrived at a mind dump, so they opened the boot of the car and marched me to the top of it and started hitting me. One of the things they use to do is called hooding; you saw those pictures of what happened in Abu Gurayr in Iraq. The Americans were torturing detainee’s infact that is what they did to me. They put a bag on my head and choked and hit me. That was on one occasion, on the other occasions they always threatened to do something but they never inflict any bodily harm. It was not because they were nice or anything, it’s because well I was well known after my first detention so sometimes they a bit careful when you well known. They think you have a big mouth and you would speak if they did something cruel. They a bit careful, maybe that was the reason I’m not quite sure why they didn’t hit me the other times. It’s not that I deserved a hiding.
Q: Were you an MK (Imkonto-we-sizwe), which is a member of the military wing of the ANC at the time?
A: No, I never joined the MK. In part I suppose I could have, there were people who were braver than I was who joined. But I also believed that it wasn’t so much passive resistance but I think what I did believe was that it was very important that we tried to what I would called defend the legal space that which we were working. So that it was very important that we tried to pursue more and more people to be involved in non-violent opposition because when they force you into violence you become smaller and smaller groups, lose your impact. So I was never opposed or acted to have a principle opposition to those who decided to take up arms. But I thought certainly for my own contribution, to avoid taking up arms as long as possible.
Aishah
Q: Did you feel the efforts of your struggle were in vain at that time?
Azhar
A: No, well I think you go through moments of weakness. When you alone in a cell on a Saturday night and it’s cold. You looking outside and the rest of the world seem to be going on with their business. You sitting in this cell all alone and you wonder, is it worth it. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t have doubts of weakness. So yes I did have my moments of weakness. But mercifully I think my moments of strength out numbered my moments of weakness. So at the time I never thought what I was doing was wrong, hopeless or not worth it.
Aishah
Q: How did you feel about those in power at the time, that is what did you think of white supremacy at the time?
Azhar
A: Let’s make a difference between those in power and white supremacy. I always believed that you see that in all political systems where there is oppression or exploitation, they do it for economical reasons. They don’t really do it because they believe you are inferior. Or that George Bush believes that Muslims are inferior, they do that because they have certain political goals and certain political interests. It is true that part of the process of then justifying why they are doing this because you may be inferior. They create rationalism and justifications in their own minds that you may be inferior. I knew that in fighting white supremacy and fighting against them I was really fighting against a system rather than the individuals who had prejudices. I realized once we change the system then we didn’t want to replace in a sense bad white people with bad black people because then you have not changed anything. You have just changed the colour of oppression. Obviously if somebody hits you or is ugly to you the individual, you don’t have a completely neutral feeling, he is not a robot who is hitting you or abusing you or swearing you. You have difficult relationships with those people and you may even dislike them. I can’t say I hated nor had strong feelings against white people for example. I never felt that way. I knew what I was fighting; I was fighting a political system not whites or an individual.
Aishah
Q: How did you react to the many different laws e.g. the pass law, group areas act etc?
Azhar
A: Where ever I could I broke those laws. Indian people were not allowed for example to enter African areas without a permit. I would go into those areas, occasionally I got arrested for that. It’s not like I could have respected any of those laws. When you say how I reacted well I despised the laws and I knew we had to change them. I was not neutral. When they banned me, they detained me under the Internal Security Act; those I thought were quite despicable laws. I was quite determined to oppose those laws and fight them.
Aishah
Q: Did you ever hear or see neck lacing that people who spied for the apartheid state were burnt alive by a tyre placed over them?
Azhar
A: No, I never saw one myself, mercifully not. I saw video’s of it. I saw it as awful and terrible.
Aishah
Q: What do you think of the current democracy, is it what you had foreseen?
Azhar
A: I think that to take a balanced view of it, I think in general it is true we have made a lot of progress. I think we are better of as a country today then we ever were. We have removed rationally discrimitary laws. That people who were excluded from politically and economical power have access to it. I think there is much we can be grateful for; I think it is important that we record that. At the same time I often feel that many of us have betrayed our goals. One of our goals was to create a non-racial society. I see a lot of racism among white people. But there is a lot of racism among all communities. That is not only in the white community it may be in the community that you and I live in, it could be in other communities. So I see a lot of people. I often look at what people in the government, in the ruling party, they manipulate race and ethnically for their own political ends. When they do that I think they are behaving no differently to the way the apartheid government behaved. That undermines our goal on racial society. Many of us have lost our way, we tend to be greedy and materialistic and that means that we, not realizing that we contribute to making the society unstable. There are too many people that are poor and under privileged and they see that those who have political power, those who are connected and who have friends that are connected are people who are making the money are doing very well at least in their minds. So they feel angry, resentful and excluded. There are some very serious questions we must ask ourselves. If I think down 13 years, down our democracy I worry about, I certainly would have hoped that we would have gone further down the road in dealing with those problems. I don’t think we are doing enough.
Aishah
Q: What message would you like to share with the people of South Africa today?
Azhar
A: For me the most important message is that we must never forget what happened and that is not because we must exact revenge. But we must understand what the struggle was about. I talk to you and you talk to me and we must understand the values that we sort to uphold. For me the message is not that we were fighting for political power, we were fighting to uphold certain values. Non-rationalism, protection of human rights those were the values that informed, caused us the way we felt. My message is that in whatever we do today we must remember and continue to be guided by the same principles and some values in the new South Africa. Those of us who fought for the new South Africa believed in then. You can play different roles, you can be an activist but you can be a doctor, a molana, a lawyer, a teacher, you can be whatever you want to. I think there are certain basic values that exist across the society. If we defend those values then we have hope to build a better society. That would be my message.
Aishah
Q: Finally, are you hopeful of South Africa’s future?
Azhar
A: I am always hopeful, again sometimes I feel pessimistic when I see some of the things happening. I see a lot of inequality, I see a lot of crime, and I see a lot of massive social problems that distresses me. But I’m always hopeful because there maybe people like you who are concerned about these issues. Hopefully you want to live in a better society. I’m hopeful there would always be people who will carry the torch, the beacon. There are things that improve the society. I think there are more good people and committed people in the society than those who are not. Thank You
Thank You
Done by: Aishah Moga
Research: www.google.co.za
SECRETARY FOR SAFETY AND SECURITY
Azhar Cachalia was born in Scotland in 1956. He attended school in Scotland and in Benoni (Gauteng) and matriculated at Damelin College in Johannesburg in 1974. Between 1975 and 1980, he studied at the University of Durban Westville and at Wits University, having changed his course of study from science to the arts.
In 1987 he was active in the Benoni Students' Movement and was detained for the first time. In 1981 he was elected Vice-President of the Black Students' Society at Wits and was detained, with his brother Firoz (now a member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature), for three weeks. Immediately thereafter he was served with a banning order which confined him to the magisterial district of Benoni for 2 years. When the banning order was lifted in June 1983, he was elected to the executive of the Transvaal Indian Congress (TIC), and thereafter held office in the United Democratic Front (UDF) at provincial and national level until 1990. He was both banned and detained for his involvement in political activities
In 1983, Azhar graduated with an LLB from Wits University. He was admitted as an attorney in 1986.
In 1986, Azhar was detained for six weeks under the State of Emergency Regulations, and, a few months later, served with another restriction order. In 1987 he was detained twice by the Security Branch of the SAP. In 1988, a new restriction order prohibited him from participating in the activities of the UDF.
In 1988, Azhar joined the Johannesburg law firm Cheadle, Thompson and Haysom, where, until recently he was its managing partner. He is one of the co-authors of "Fundamental Human Rights in the New Constitution" and he holds a Higher Diploma in Income Tax Law with Fink Haysom and H Cheadle. He was also the firm's managing partner.
In June 1994, Azhar became a member of Minister Mufamadi's Interim Advisory Team. He worked as a technical expert on the Constitutional Assembly theme committee on Security and Defence, and convened the team which drafted the new Police Act.
He is married to Welfare Director General, Dr Leila Patel, and they have two daughters. His father Dr Ismail Cachalia is a member of the National Assembly.
Azhar Cachalia was appointed as Secretary for Safety and Security on 8 January 1996. In this capacity he is the Minister for Safety and Security's chief policy advisor. He is also responsible for ensuring proper Government overseeing over policing matters. The implementation of the National Crime Prevention Strategy falls within his sphere of responsibility.
"Beyond Our Wildest Dreams"The United Democratic Front and the Transformation of South Africa
by Ineke van Kessel
384 pages, 9 b&w illus. and 3 maps • 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Cloth ISBN 0-8139-1861-8 $55.00 • Paper ISBN 0-8139-1868-5 $22.50
As anyone who lived through that decade knows, the 1980s in South Africa were marked by protest, violent confrontation, and international sanctions. Internally, the country saw a bewildering growth of grassroots organizations--including trade unions, civic associations in the black townships, student and other youth organizations, church-based groups, and women's movements--many of which operated under the umbrella of the United Democratic Front (UDF). "Beyond Our Wildest Dreams" explores the often conflicted relationship between the UDF's large-scale resistance to apartheid and its everyday struggles at the local level.
In hindsight, the UDF can be seen as a transitional front, preparing the ground for leaders of the liberation movement to return from exile or prison and take over power. But the founding fathers of the UDF initially had far more modest ambitions. As Azhar Cachalia, one of its core activists, later explained: "Look, when we founded the UDF, we had never in our wildest dreams expected that events would take off in the way they did. What happened was beyond everybody's expectations."
Interviews with Cachalia and other leading personalities in the UDF examine the organization's workings at the national level, while stories of ordinary people, collected by the author, illuminate the grassroots activism so important to the UDF's success. Even in South Africa, writes Ineke van Kessel, who covered the anti-apartheid movement as a journalist, resistance was not the obvious option for ordinary citizens. Van Kessel shows how these people were mobilized into forming a radical social movement that developed a highly flexible and innovative form of resistance that ultimately ended apartheid.
Reviews
"Based on thorough, meticulous, and discerning scholarship, van Kessel's book shows a mature understanding of South Africa's political dynamics. Outstandingly perceptive while broadly sympathetic, van Kessel achieves an admirable objectivity regarding the foibles and weaknesses of the actors in her story. She succeeds in conveying the real texture of politics on the ground."
--Gail M. Gerhart, American University in Cairo
The Author
Ineke van Kessel is a researcher at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, The Netherlands.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Patience
Reflective Essay
Patience
I speak of a very particular quality, one which is regarded lightly. Many don’t possess such a quality; I would place myself in the same group. A person with the quality like patience is someone with a brave heart. Patience among people of the new generations do not exist, but hopefully it will be changed by a very inspiring story.
I am relating an experience and a bit more of the life of a very brave hero. Yunus Shaik, a member of the government and an apartheid activist. He had lost his mother at a very young age and grew up in the hands of an African lady. He encountered many difficulties but still stood straight. But that was not the only time his patience was tested. Though the apartheid system was a horrible and unfair system, through out the apartheid times he had believed there was hope for South Africa. He encountered gruesome experiences, sad to say, he was tortured severely. He explained the most tearing experience was when he was placed in a chamber and security blotch people tortured him. They placed a bag over his head, cutting his oxygen supply. Accompanied with that they beat him up. What carried him through all this he believes was his religion, Islam. He says enchanting the beautiful words of Allah, in the form of zikr and engaging in prayer. He realizes what is truly meant by being a believer. Allah assisted him through the period of struggle.
I gather patience is tolerance, understanding and acceptance without judging our reward. In simple words a quality of calmness. I would like to quote the exact meaning of patience from www.wikipedia.com “patience is the ability to endure waiting, delay or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to preserve calmly when faced with difficulties.”
Faced with challenges and experiences such as that of Yunus Shaik, I would say our challenges are mild, but we still complain and say life’s difficult and our anger issues easily. We can’t explain totally why we regard life difficult. If we compare our challenges with the anti-apartheid activists or even the many Prophets times. Ours are nothing yet, we continuously complain. Living with dark hearts, not striving the least bit to make a difference in the world. There is so much we could do for our communities or expand it, making a difference in the country.
Patience is very much linked with peace. If we could gain patience in our lives we would create peace in the world. You might ask how this is possible. The people of the apartheid struggle were positive and believed peace would prevail. They stuck with all difficulties through thick and thin and made it out of the struggle. If we could help people in the world and teach them some ethic of life, with our ability of been patient and without becoming annoyed we would make a peaceful difference in the world.
Patience as a quality of a Muslim should be extremely high. This quality is regarded as one of the best and most valuable quality of life. We believe we should be patient and anger should not prevail easily but do we see that happening among marriages, families, professionals or anyone in the community? Allah has taught us to be patient, for we could regain reward out of it, assisted with peace. Allah has mentioned numerous times in the Qur’an about patience, here are some:
“Oh you who believe! Seek help with patient perseverance and prayer, for God is with those who patiently persevere,” (2:153)
“And be steadfast in patience, for verily Allah will not suffer the reward of the righteous to perish.” (11:115)
For those who have patience, you are great in the eyes of Allah, for those who aren’t we should strive to adopt such a quality for surely it would take us far in life. Been able to pray freely, no resistance of greatness in our country. Don’t we all realize the importance of our Deen. Starting patience in the heart, teaching the rest. Won’t we look at our lives, our community differently. Thankful for the easy lives we have, faced with challenges but not many. So stop complaining of the difficult times, have patience, remember Allah and be thankful for the blissful times.
Patience
I speak of a very particular quality, one which is regarded lightly. Many don’t possess such a quality; I would place myself in the same group. A person with the quality like patience is someone with a brave heart. Patience among people of the new generations do not exist, but hopefully it will be changed by a very inspiring story.
I am relating an experience and a bit more of the life of a very brave hero. Yunus Shaik, a member of the government and an apartheid activist. He had lost his mother at a very young age and grew up in the hands of an African lady. He encountered many difficulties but still stood straight. But that was not the only time his patience was tested. Though the apartheid system was a horrible and unfair system, through out the apartheid times he had believed there was hope for South Africa. He encountered gruesome experiences, sad to say, he was tortured severely. He explained the most tearing experience was when he was placed in a chamber and security blotch people tortured him. They placed a bag over his head, cutting his oxygen supply. Accompanied with that they beat him up. What carried him through all this he believes was his religion, Islam. He says enchanting the beautiful words of Allah, in the form of zikr and engaging in prayer. He realizes what is truly meant by being a believer. Allah assisted him through the period of struggle.
I gather patience is tolerance, understanding and acceptance without judging our reward. In simple words a quality of calmness. I would like to quote the exact meaning of patience from www.wikipedia.com “patience is the ability to endure waiting, delay or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to preserve calmly when faced with difficulties.”
Faced with challenges and experiences such as that of Yunus Shaik, I would say our challenges are mild, but we still complain and say life’s difficult and our anger issues easily. We can’t explain totally why we regard life difficult. If we compare our challenges with the anti-apartheid activists or even the many Prophets times. Ours are nothing yet, we continuously complain. Living with dark hearts, not striving the least bit to make a difference in the world. There is so much we could do for our communities or expand it, making a difference in the country.
Patience is very much linked with peace. If we could gain patience in our lives we would create peace in the world. You might ask how this is possible. The people of the apartheid struggle were positive and believed peace would prevail. They stuck with all difficulties through thick and thin and made it out of the struggle. If we could help people in the world and teach them some ethic of life, with our ability of been patient and without becoming annoyed we would make a peaceful difference in the world.
Patience as a quality of a Muslim should be extremely high. This quality is regarded as one of the best and most valuable quality of life. We believe we should be patient and anger should not prevail easily but do we see that happening among marriages, families, professionals or anyone in the community? Allah has taught us to be patient, for we could regain reward out of it, assisted with peace. Allah has mentioned numerous times in the Qur’an about patience, here are some:
“Oh you who believe! Seek help with patient perseverance and prayer, for God is with those who patiently persevere,” (2:153)
“And be steadfast in patience, for verily Allah will not suffer the reward of the righteous to perish.” (11:115)
For those who have patience, you are great in the eyes of Allah, for those who aren’t we should strive to adopt such a quality for surely it would take us far in life. Been able to pray freely, no resistance of greatness in our country. Don’t we all realize the importance of our Deen. Starting patience in the heart, teaching the rest. Won’t we look at our lives, our community differently. Thankful for the easy lives we have, faced with challenges but not many. So stop complaining of the difficult times, have patience, remember Allah and be thankful for the blissful times.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Cry, the Beloved Country - Character Analysis
Absalom Kumalo:
Public life:
Has bad company (do nonsense)
Thief (steels a lot…as said)
Private life:
Nomad (moves from place to place)
Fearful person (kills Arthur due to fear)
Honest (confesses to the murder)
Brave at the end (gains maturity, enter death gracefully)
Peoples perceptions:
Murderer (kills Arthur Jarvis)
Person with great potential (reformatory)
Willing man (wants to get married and support family)
Cruel (deserted girl who he has made pregnant)
Arthur Jarvis:
Public life:
Interest in the people (especially black people)
Opponent of Apartheid
Personal life:
Family man
Hero known to be Abraham Lincoln
Exploring and interactive person (President of African Boy’s Club and spoke languages such as Zulu)
People’s perceptions:
Wealthy man
Strong character (stood out against Apartheid – wanted justice)
Disappointment due to his death
Father confused about him (never understood his work till after his death)
Disappointment due to his death
James Jarvis:
Public life:
Careless (in the sense he did not worry at first of the troubles in the country)
Later he develops relationship with the people of Ndotsheni
Helpful (In his area)
Personal life:
Reserved person
Under went many tragedies (son and wife’s death)
Family man (did not live in the city, spent most time on the farm)
Good man – though never bothered of politics and issues that were facing South Africa
Peoples perceptions:
Wasn’t much of a social person
Was respected in Ndotsheni (at the beginning of the movie, when the girl was passing him she waited)
After adopting some of his sons spirit he tries to correct his injustice
Great figure among the people of Ndotsheni (helped them develop area)
John Kumalo:
Public life:
Political activist
Personal life:
Successful man with a good business
Unhelpful to brother
Sly (supports his sons lies)
Loses all tribal ways (social-dislocation)
Peoples perceptions:
Believed to be corrupted by power (disliking to the church)
People of the church do not take a liking to him
Looked upon by some as a strong man (standing up for injustice)
Gertrude Kumalo:
Public life:
Crime and prostitution
Returns to such ways after running away from Ndotsheni
Personal life:
Afraid and wants to find her husband (therefore going to Johannesburg)
Bad company
Social- dislocation
Desires to be a nun at a certain time
Peoples perceptions:
Sick (coming from a good home and involved in such actions)
Theophilus Msimangu:
Public life:
Involved spiritually not politically
Personal life:
Preacher (priest of Mission House)
Strives for better
Peoples perceptions:
Noble and generous
Good personality (touch peoples hearts)
Intelligent man
Public life:
Has bad company (do nonsense)
Thief (steels a lot…as said)
Private life:
Nomad (moves from place to place)
Fearful person (kills Arthur due to fear)
Honest (confesses to the murder)
Brave at the end (gains maturity, enter death gracefully)
Peoples perceptions:
Murderer (kills Arthur Jarvis)
Person with great potential (reformatory)
Willing man (wants to get married and support family)
Cruel (deserted girl who he has made pregnant)
Arthur Jarvis:
Public life:
Interest in the people (especially black people)
Opponent of Apartheid
Personal life:
Family man
Hero known to be Abraham Lincoln
Exploring and interactive person (President of African Boy’s Club and spoke languages such as Zulu)
People’s perceptions:
Wealthy man
Strong character (stood out against Apartheid – wanted justice)
Disappointment due to his death
Father confused about him (never understood his work till after his death)
Disappointment due to his death
James Jarvis:
Public life:
Careless (in the sense he did not worry at first of the troubles in the country)
Later he develops relationship with the people of Ndotsheni
Helpful (In his area)
Personal life:
Reserved person
Under went many tragedies (son and wife’s death)
Family man (did not live in the city, spent most time on the farm)
Good man – though never bothered of politics and issues that were facing South Africa
Peoples perceptions:
Wasn’t much of a social person
Was respected in Ndotsheni (at the beginning of the movie, when the girl was passing him she waited)
After adopting some of his sons spirit he tries to correct his injustice
Great figure among the people of Ndotsheni (helped them develop area)
John Kumalo:
Public life:
Political activist
Personal life:
Successful man with a good business
Unhelpful to brother
Sly (supports his sons lies)
Loses all tribal ways (social-dislocation)
Peoples perceptions:
Believed to be corrupted by power (disliking to the church)
People of the church do not take a liking to him
Looked upon by some as a strong man (standing up for injustice)
Gertrude Kumalo:
Public life:
Crime and prostitution
Returns to such ways after running away from Ndotsheni
Personal life:
Afraid and wants to find her husband (therefore going to Johannesburg)
Bad company
Social- dislocation
Desires to be a nun at a certain time
Peoples perceptions:
Sick (coming from a good home and involved in such actions)
Theophilus Msimangu:
Public life:
Involved spiritually not politically
Personal life:
Preacher (priest of Mission House)
Strives for better
Peoples perceptions:
Noble and generous
Good personality (touch peoples hearts)
Intelligent man
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