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They Speak Out

THEY SPEAK OUT

By K. Ramamurthy, I.A.S..,
Assistant Collector (U/T)
Kottayam, Kerala

          They are aliens in their motherland; they  cherish the ideal that “their country belongs to all who live in it and that no Government can justly  claim authority  unless it is based on the will of all the people” – the ideal for which they fight and the ideal for which they are prepared  to lay down their lives; they mount a relentless and resolute struggle for the elimination of that crime against humanity, which has brought unbearable misery and suffering on them; they flee their country  to join the external  struggle  and knock at the doors of friendly countries  for their helping hand; they practice Mahatma Gandhiji’s view. I quote: “I would a thousand times prefer violence than the emasculation of a whole race. I prefer to use arms in defence  of honour rather  than remain the vile  witness of dishonour” unquote.
I again quote “our Sons measured their height
by the length of guns,
the Anguish of waiting weighed  on us
Lie an endless yearning,
Happy are those who live in our time in freedom, building freedom” unquote.
They say it almost in tears – they are the natives under the yoke of the minority and recist regime of south Africa that perpetuates the policy of racial discrimination.
Theirs is no longer a cry in wilderness; they are heard: they are helped. Their cherished goal is not denied, but delayed. Every nation that loves freedom and democracy, irrespective of its parochial interests must stand by them at their hours of trials and tribulations so that it could share their happiness  later.
          I had the privilege of attending the recently held international Seminar on International Struggle  Against  apartheid in Delhi. Almost all the seminarists listened to the papers presented  by Mr. Mohammed Timol and Mr. Stephen Dlamini, members of the African  National Congress Delegation with  rapt attention. (The 67-year old ANC is the truly representative organisation that has been spearheading the struggle  against the south African regime from the day of its inception on January 8, 1912. It launches underground  resistance movements and also acts as an external organ to mobilize  international opinion  against the abominable policy of apartheid).
          Somehow I managed to get appointments with them for separate interviews. First, I spoke to Mohammed Timol in his Janpath hotel room. Mohammed Timol a fair complexioned young man  with a thick drooping moustache, is a South  African of Indian origin. The racist regime of south Africa  was and is so oppressive that he fled the country  on 1 January, 1978 to a friendly neighbourly country. He declined to name it for obvious reasons.
          His father Yussouf Timol, almost semi-blind new, left village Kholvad, in Surat district, Gujarat for South Africa in 1918, when he was 12. I was almost moved them he told me of his late elder brother  Ahmed Timol to whom he attributed his political undertaking. Before I proceed further, let me provide some  background  information to the repressive  police force  of South Africa. South Africa  is a police State armed with the tools  of oppression namely the Suppression of Communism Act 1950, “Criminal Law Amendment Act 1953, the General Law Amendment Act 1962 and the Terrorism Act 1967. It brooks no opposition , indulges in legal violence, intimidation, police terror and brutality. Anyone who opposes the apartheid regime is branded “communist” and it comes down upon him heavily. By its brutal force, the Government intimidates the opponents of apartheid or suppresses the  growth of effective political  opposition in South  Africa. In the land of South Africa, imprisonment without trial has long been established. The police  could raid ones house at any hour  of the day, arrest persons without  assigning  reasons  and they are under no obligation to inform the family of those arrested as to where they are being held or even that they have been arrested. They use third  degree methods  and resort to brutal floggings and give electric  shocks to elicit  more information.
          Nearly 50 deaths in police custody since 1963 amply proves that the torture of political  detunes continues unabated in South Africa. The late Ahmed Timol was one of the 50 political  prisoners  died in police detention. Ahmed Timol, a high school teacher in ROODEPEOORT,  21 Kms. West of Johannesburg  was arrested under Terrorism  Act in February 1970 on the ground that he was in possession of pamphlets  and literature advocating resistance  to the Government and armed struggle. Mohammed Timol came to know of his brother’s detention after 2 days of his detention in October, 1971. It was true that his brother was a member  of the African National Congress and that he was involved  in the underground  movements. On the forth day of his detention he was informed  that his brother  Ahmed Timol had committed  suicide by leaping down from the 10th floor window of the Security  Police Headquarter of Johanneaburg where he was taken for interrogation. He was not even allowed to attend  his brother’s funeral. The police maintained  the blatant lie that he being  a Communist did not want to betray his comrades and so committed suicide. The actual  thing that  happened was after he was fatally assaulted, he was thrown out of the 10th floor window. Ahmed Timol’s was not the only case of death  in police detention. The late 29 year old  Steve Biko one of the leading exponents of the “Black conscious Movement” met the same fate of dying in police detention in 1977. In 1965 Lawrance Gandar, Editor of the Rand Daily Mail, brok the newspapers’ silence on south Africa  prison-conditions by publishing  three long articles by Harol Strachan, a political prisoner who had spent three years in jail. Here is an except from one of them:

“The worst assaults I saw anywhere in jail wre those on Africans at the hospital………………………..Non-European prisoners who had  to see the doctors  were  brought  at about 6.15 in the morning and it could be freezing cold in Pretoria. They stood  naked 60,70, 80 of them at a time, huddled up like birds trying to keep warm……………….the ground, barefoot, clutching each other to try to keep warm”.
          After so we to uprising in 1976 Mohammed Timol was again detained, this time for 4 months for his involvement in the So we to uprising. It erupted on 16th June, 1976, when 10,0000 school children gathered in so we to, the black township near Johannesburg to peacefully  protest against “Bantustan education Act”. But as in Sharpeville in 1960, when the Africans protested non violently against the “Pass Laws”, the police reacted ruthlessly by gunning  down the peaceful  student  demonstrators in sowe to.
          I interviewed 62 year old Stephen Dlamini a member of the National  Executive  of the African National Congress next. Dlammini has studied upto Intermediate  and holds a diploma in Methods of Teaching  and School Organisation. He took up the job of a textile  worker because it was comparatively more remunerative than that of a teacher. He worked  as a warper in the textile industry in Durban for 27 years. During that time he was very  much involved in trade union activities. He was also a member of the Communist Party and he joined the Africian  National Congress in 1945.
          At this juncture as word or two about the employment  opportunities  for the Black and the Coloured would not be out of place. Employment opportunities for Africans  are fw: unskilled jobs in the mines and factories, on farms, on roads and railways. In Industry the wage gap between white and African labour is 5 to 1: in mining 12 to 1. African trade union are banned, strikes are illegal and carry heavy fines.
          In 1965. Dlamini was arrested for his involvement with the African National Congress and sentenced for 4 years. After a year he was also charged that he was a member of the communist party and so sentenced for two more years.  He was released in 1970. But he was banished to a rural area in Polela district, Natal for five years.
          While he was working he had to stay away from his family of 7 members in a hotel meant for workers. He could at the most go home once a year  on a fortnight paid – holiday. The apartheid  labour  Policy thus kept the husband  and the wife apart fro a year denying them each others company. When he fled the country in 1977, three of his children were going to school and the other two girls and a boy were unmarried. “I do not know as to what happened  ot them now, we just can not be in touch  with each other”, he added. He paid rich tributes to Mahatma Gandhiji for his contribution  ot their freedom struggle. He was all in praise of the Indian stand and support for their struggle. He also mentioned that India snapped her tiles with the Pretoria regime at a time when its infant democracy could ill afford it. “Be it at the UN, the nonaligned  movement or any other international forum, the world has always witnessed India playing a leading role in mobilizing support for our cause”, based upon the political  subjugation and economic  exploitation of the majority  of the citizens of South  Africa as undemocratic, dictatorial and despotic. He strongly believes that seminars such as this would help mobilize  international opinion against the oppressive regime. He also condemned the multi-national corporations for their support to the illegal regime and their efforts to exploit the cheap Black labour. 

Sunday, April 18, 2010 | Category: ,

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