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Letter of the President
11 May , 2007
Patriots, revolutionaries and servants of the people
Last year we commemorated a number of important anniversaries. These included the centenaries of the Bambata Rebellion and the launch of Satyagraha, the 60th anniversary of the Mineworkers' Strike, the 50th anniversary of the Women's March and the 30th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising.
These anniversaries provided us with an opportunity to remind ourselves of the great heroism it had taken to bring us the freedom that we enjoy today. They served to encourage all genuine patriots to strive to emulate the spirit of selflessness and dedication to serve the people that had inspired the millions who engaged in the historic struggles we celebrated.
Commenting on these anniversaries, the 2006 January 8th Statement of the National Executive Committee of the ANC said: "The history encapsulated in these anniversaries communicates the clear message that during its 94th year of fighting existence, the ANC has a continuing responsibility to mobilise all classes and strata of our people into united struggle for progressive change. It must continue to organise and inspire each and every one of these classes and strata to ensure their involvement in this struggle.
"It must continuously educate these masses, classes and strata to understand and unite around the programme, strategy and tactics of the national democratic movement, for the victory of the national democratic revolution.
"It must ensure that its cadres, organised structures and leaders earn and enjoy the confidence of the people because of the way they conduct themselves as patriots, revolutionaries and servants of the people. In this way it must continue to earn its place as the vanguard movement at the head of our country's process of fundamental social transformation."
Through a most unfortunate oversight, last year we omitted to profile and highlight the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Treason Trial. This would have given us an added opportunity to draw on the example of struggle that had been set by the 156 patriots and leaders who were arrested by the apartheid regime on 5 December 1956 and charged with treason.
As we improved our acquaintance with these individual activists for the liberation of our people, we would have learnt much about the nature of our movement and what it means to be a genuine cadre of the Congress Movement.
We would have understood better that to call ourselves true successors to the liberation fighters who were confronted with the serious charge of treason requires, even in the aftermath of the victory of the democratic revolution, we would have to walk in the path of patriots who knew what it means to serve the people, with no expectation of personal gain.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the Treason Trial, an outstanding heroine of our people and esteemed Member of the Order of Luthuli, Phyllis Naidoo, gave all of us an invaluable gift for which we must express our profound thanks, and which must surely serve to bring all of us close to the patriots to whom I have referred - the 1956 Treason Trial accused.
Last year Phyllis Naidoo published the moving book and labour of love -"156 Hands That Built South Africa: The 1956 Treason Trial". Very appropriately, the front and back covers of the book are taken up with the famous photograph of the 156 treason trialists taken by the outstanding photographer and member of our movement, the late Eli Weinberg.
Merely to study the faces on the photograph is to undertake a journey into our history, reminding us of the obligations on us as current members of the democratic movement as we walk in the footsteps of the patriots who were photographed by Eli Weinberg.
On the photograph you will find Inkosi Albert Luthuli, Moses Kotane, Helen Joseph, Rusty Bernstein, Lilian Ngoyi, Advocate Duma Nokwe, Walter Sisulu, Sonia Bunting, Canon James Calata, Prof ZK Matthews, Vuyisile Mini, Peter Nthite, Patrick Molaoa, Dr Monty Naicker, Fish Keitsing, Mark Shope, Frances Baard, Dorothy Nyembe, Ida Mntwana, Kay Moonsamy, Gert Sibande, Oliver Tambo, Reg September, Annie Silinga, Debi Singh, Stella Damons, Alex La Guma, Bertha Gxowa, Joe Matthews, Ayesha Dawood, Billy Nair, Joe Slovo, Rev Douglas Thomson, Ben Turok, Joe Modise, Yetta Barenblatt, Chota Motala, MP Naicker, Ruth First, Ahmed Kathrada, Mosie Moolla, Jacqueline Arenstein, Dorothy Shanley, Nelson Mandela, and many others.
Each one of these and all the others on the photograph represent inspiring stories of involvement in the struggle for the liberation of our people, which also convey the clear message of the need to be ready to make the necessary sacrifices to qualify to be described as a servant of the people.
Phyllis Naidoo tells some of these stories in "156 Hands...", with the individual photographs of each of the treason trialists accompanying the short accounts of their lives and their involvement in the struggle. Below follow some of these inspiring stories.
But before we reproduce some of these stories, we must reflect what Eli Weinberg said about his famous photograph, which in itself, communicates a message about the constant need to be daring and creative to meet the objective of the all-round emancipation of our people.
Phyllis Naidoo reports that Eli Weinberg said: "The story of this photograph illustrates an aspect of racism in South Africa. I had spoken to the Superintendent of Joubert Park (in the vicinity of the court) and had asked for permission to use an amphitheatrically seating arrangement in the park for the purpose of a group photograph of 156 people. He readily agreed."
However, half-an-hour before the photography session, the Superintendent discovered who would be in the photograph. "He threw up his hands in horror, 'You are not going to bring all these kaffirs into Joubert Park', and promptly withdrew permission.
"Within the half hour left to the lunch break of the Court, I hastily improvised some benches and photographed the accused seated in groups of 30 or 40 in the same alphabetical and provincial order as in the Court and then prepared a montage of the resulting four groups."
This story of the 'kaffirs' who were not allowed to set foot on Joubert Park graphically highlights the national tragedy that ultimately led to a long delay in the democratisation of our country, thousands killed in our country and region, and the further entrenchment of poverty and underdevelopment.
One of these 'kaffirs' was Mary Goitsemang Ranta who started working as a 'tea girl' in Pretoria, getting a job later as a typist for the African Iron and Steel Workers Union. Later she worked in the garment industry emerging as a shop steward in the Garment Workers Union.
Having joined the ANC, by 1955 she held the position of National Secretary of the ANC Women's League and was a member of the National Executive Committee of the Federation of South African Women. She was one of the organisers and participants in the 1956 Women's March.
When she was arrested for High Treason, she was held with the other women detainees in the women's section of the Johannesburg Fort. Ultimately the charges against her were withdrawn on 10 January 1958. Of her, Gertrude Shope later wrote: "Unfortunately she did not live to see the fruits of her dedicated labour, but her memory will remind us of her noble deeds."
Another 'kaffir' who could not set foot on Joubert Park was Patrick Moseli Molaoa. Born in Alexandra Township he did everything to educate himself, attending school in Johannesburg, Kimberley and the then Basutholand. Very committed to youth development, he became a boxer and opened a gymnasium for the youth of Alexandra.
Having joined the ANC Youth League, he was one of the organisers for the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. In 1959, while he was on trial for treason, Patrick was elected President of the ANC Youth League.
Writing of him Helen Joseph said: "Molaoa was called as a defence witness during the trial...He gave important testimony on the feelings of the people and the conduct of ANC meetings at the time of the removal of the Western Areas Removal. With other victims, he was eventually compelled to move with his wife and family to one of the municipal townships ten miles from Johannesburg. Following his acquittal, Patrick obtained a position in the sales department of a large mineral water factory." While still on trial for treason, he was detained during the 1960 State of Emergency. By this time his family depended for its livelihood on funds raised by the Defence and Aid Fund, but this did not force him to abandon the struggle. He joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), went out of the country for training and was one of the heroes who fell in battle in Hwange, Zimbabwe in 1968.
In 2003 he was admitted into the ranks of the Order of Luthuli, "for exceptional leadership in the struggle of the youth against apartheid and for laying down his life to attain freedom and democracy for all in South Africa."
One who could be allowed into Joubert Park was the Afrikaner, Jan Hendrik Hofmeyer Hoogendyk. He fought against Nazi Germany during World War II and, on returning home, became a member of the Springbok Legion and the Congress of Democrats, later becoming its Johannesburg chairperson. When he was arrested in 1956, he left his wife with a six-month-old baby.
Writing of him during the Treason Trial, Lionel Forman said: "For a long time there was no Afrikaans, the language of Strijdom, but the morning was not to pass without a symbol that there were Afrikaners in the freedom movement too. 'Ja, ek is teenwordig', came the reply when Jan Hoogendyk's name was called, and the magistrate's head snapped up."
Jan and his wife Jackie were forced to go into exile in Lesotho. Phyllis Naidoo reports that Lesotho resident Robin Cranko said of Jan and Jackie: "they were both staunch opponents of the apartheid regime and Jan used to get into flaming arguments with certain people at the Lancers Inn Hotel in Maseru."
Jan and Jackie introduced a New Zealand pilot, Pat McQuarry, to our struggle. Later, McQuarry participated in the anti-apartheid struggle in New Zealand and dropped flour bombs from the air on the players in a match between New Zealand and apartheid South Africa in New Zealand. Tragically, Jan Hoogendyk died one day after Nelson Mandela was released in 1990.
Another of the accused was Christina Jasson, who first joined the trade union movement in her native Port Elizabeth. She later worked with such workers' leaders as Leslie Massina, Raymond Mhlaba, Wilton Mkwayi, Vuyisile Mini, Frances Baard and many others. She participated in the 1955 founding conference of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) as a delegate of the Textile Workers Industrial Union and was elected to the SACTU National Executive Committee.
When she was arrested for high treason, she was pregnant and her child was born during the trial. Ultimately the charges against her were withdrawn. She passed away in 1999.
Ayesha Bibi Dawood was born in Worcester in 1927, where her father was a trader. She first joined the struggle in 1951 when she served as Secretary of an Action Committee formed to protest against the removal of the Coloured population from the voters roll. She campaigned for the success of the 1952 Defiance Campaign.
In 1953 she joined the ANC, admitted by the Worcester branch. She represented our movement at the Women's International Democratic Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. From there, she also attended that year's Conference of the World Peace Council in Budapest, Hungary and the World Youth Conference in Bucharest, Rumania. After this she went to India where she met Yusuf Mukadam whom she married in 1961 after jumping ship in South Africa, staying in the country illegally.
On her return home, she mobilised for the Congress of the People but could not attend personally as the delegation from Worcester was blocked by the apartheid police. Having been arrested with the others in December 1956, the charges against her were dropped in January 1958, but she was again detained during the 1960 State of Emergency.
When the Security Police discovered in 1968 that Ayesha's husband was in the country illegally, they tried to recruit her to work as an informer. She refused and she, her husband and children were 'endorsed out' of South Africa and forced into exile in India.
She was only able to return to her native Worcester in December 1991, 23 years after she had been forced to leave the country of her birth. During one of her trials she said: "It does not matter what race you belong to, we must all pull together. We shall not retreat in the face of scare stories of Malan and Donges. They have already lost."
And indeed, thanks to the heroic struggle led by the 156 hands that built South Africa, Malan, Donges and their successors lost their struggle to perpetuate the apartheid crime against humanity. Fifty-one years after they were arrested and charged, we still need to draw inspiration from the example they set, black and white, women and youth, workers, business people, professionals and people of all faiths, determined selflessly to serve the people without seeking any personal gain
This page was last updated on Friday May 11, 2007