Born out of Sorrow

Christopher Merrett

Description

HALF the size of New York cemetery and twice as dead: this much-quoted, wry comment is generally attributed to the satirical writer Tom Sharpe who worked in Pietermarizburg in the 1950s. Also described as 'sleepy hollow' and the 'last outpost of the British Empire', Pietermaritzburg in fact possesses a rich history that highlights many key areas of South Africa's past. This is particularly true of the apartheid period.

This is the first book published on the history of the city and region as a whole in over thirty years. It contains chapters on urban geography, the regional civil war, detention without trial, the black trade union movement, and political trials; biographical contributions on Chief Mhlabunzima Maphumulo and women of the Black Sash; and organisational memoirs of the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Christian Socal Awareness, Kupugani and the Association for Rural Advancement.

The object of this series is to present fresh perspectives on the city and region's apartheid history. It takes a position that South Africa was liberated by all of its people - not one particular self-regarding vanguard movement with its hegemonic, one-dimensional views.

Chapter 1 From segregation to apartheid: Pietermaritzburg's urban geography from 1948

Chapter 2 A small civil war: political conflict in the Pietermaritzburg region in the 1980s and early 1990s

Chapter 3 Emergency of the State: detention without trial in Pietermaritzburg and the Natal Midlands, 1986-1990

Chapter 4 Struggle in the workplace: trade unions and liberation in Pietermaritzburg and the Natal Midlands: part one From the 1890s to the 1980s

Chapter 5 Struggle in the workplace: trade unions and liberation in Pietermaritzburg and the Natal Midlands: part two Sarmcol and beyond

Chapter 6 Theatre of repression: political trials in Pietermaritzburg in the 1970s and 1980s

Chapter 7 Inkosi Mhlabunzima Joseph Maphumulo

Chapter 8 Women of conscience: the Natal Midlands Black Sash

Chapter 9 PACSA: Christian witness and the apartheid state

Chapter 10 Kupugani: intimations of food security

Chapter 11 AFRA: from apartheid to liberation by John Aitchison

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Republic of South Africa
• África
• South Africa
• South Africa under apartheid
• South
• History of Africa
• Apartheid
• Africa
• Afrique du Sud

Informations

• Publié par: Natal Society Foundation
• Date de parution: 30 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781991225726
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 16 Mo

Extrait

BORN OUT OF SORROW
Essays on Pietermaritzburg
and the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands under Apartheid,
1948−1994
Volume One
Compiled and edited by Christopher Merrett
Occasional Publications of the Natal Society Foundation
PIETERMARITZBURG
2021Born out of Sorrow: Essays on Pietermaritzburg
and the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands
under Apartheid, 1948–1994. Volume One
© Christopher Merrett
Published in 2021 in Pietermaritzburg by the Trustees of the Natal Society Foundation under its
imprint ‘Occasional Publications of the Natal Society Foundation’.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means, without reference to the publishers, the Trustees of the Natal Society Foundation,
Pietermaritzburg.
Natal Society Foundation website: http://www.natalia.org.za/
ISBN 978-0-6398040-1-9
Proofreader: Catherine Munro
Cartographer: Marise Bauer
Indexer: Christopher Merrett
Design and layout: Jo Marwick
Body text: Times New Roman 11pt
Front and footnotes: Times New Roman 9pt
Front cover: M DesignCONTENTS
List of illustrations
List of maps and fgures
Abbreviations
Preface
Part One
Chapter 1 From segregation to apartheid: Pietermaritzburg’s
urban geography from 1948 1
Chapter 2 A small civil war: political confict in the
Pietermaritzburg region in the 1980s and early 1990s 39
Chapter 3 Emergency of the State: detention without trial in g and the Natal Midlands, 1986–1990 77
Chapter 4 Struggle in the workplace: trade unions and liberation
in Pietermaritzburg and the Natal Midlands:
part one From the 1890s to the 1980s 113
Chapter 5
in Pietermaritzbur
part two Sarmcol and beyond 147
Chapter 6 Theatre of repression: political trials in
Pietermaritzburg in the 1970s and 1980s 177
Part Two
Chapter 7 Inkosi Mhlabunzima Joseph Maphumulo by Jill E. Kelly 211
Chapter 8 Women of conscience: the Natal Midlands Black Sash
by Mary Kleinenberg 229
Part Three
Chapter 9 PACSA: Christian witness and the apartheid state by
Joan Kerchhof 255
Chapter 10 Kupugani: intimations of food security by
John Aitchison 267
Chapter 11 AFRA: from apartheid to liberation by John Aitchison 271
Bibliography 281
Index 294 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Four protests that signifed an end to apartheid in Pietermaritzburg:
Defance Campaign march, Longmarket Street, 21 September 1989 30
Anti-Labour Relations Amendment Act protest, upper Church Street,
14 October 1989 30
Women’s protest, Cathedral of the Holy Nativity, 21 October 1989 31
Pietermaritzburg Combined Residents and Ratepayers Association protest,
City Hall, 30 October 1989 31
Seven Day War: Edendale women’s peace march, 29 March 1990 56War: graves of victims at Azalea Cemetery, March 1990 56
Seven Day War: damage to property, March 1990 57
Inkatha-UDF confict: victim at PACSA ofces, late 1980s 57
Skhumbuzo Ngwenya Mbatha: grave of the long-serving, multiple detainee 99
Azaria Ndebele: Sobantu memorial to Robben Island prisoner and DESCOM
worker detained in 1986 99
Release of Peter Kerchhof and A.S. Chetty on 16 September 1986 after
96 days of detention 100
SACTU logo 125
FOSATU logo 125
A group of the 62 workers fred for refusing to work overtime walk away from
Conac Engineering’s Mkondeni plant, 14 October 1975 126
Metal and Allied Workers Union highlighted in FOSATU News 126
Lockout at Rosedale Textiles, 2 August 1985 157
The Great Sarmcol Strike! 157
Advertisement for Sarmcol Workers Co-operative play, ‘The Long
March’, 1986 158
Metal and Allied Workers Union poster, November 1986 158
Treason Trial, 1979: supporters of the accused outside the court 190
TTrial, 1979: supporters of the accused at the end of the trial 190
Treason Trial, 1982: tight security at the start of the trial 191
TTrial, 1982: efects of teargas used in court at the trial’s conclusion 191
Treason Trial, 1984: Sthembiso Edgar Mahlobo in retirement, 2019 192
Terrorism Trial, 1984: supporters at the conclusion of the trial of
Thembinkosi Ngcobo of Imbali 192Inkosi Mhlabunzima Maphumulo 219
Inkosi Mhlabunzima Maphumulo House (Department of Transport).
Burger Street: unveiling of plaque, July 2018 219
Maphumulo’s car after assassination attempt, 10 June 1990 220
Site of Chief Maphumulo’s assassination, 95 Havelock Road,
25 February 1991 220
Bunty Biggs 239
Marie Dyer 239
Pat Merrett 240
Busi Nyide and Advice Ofce client 240
PACSA ofce, Gay Spiller and Peter Kerchhof, Buchanan Street, 1982 260
Water quality research by Gilbert Lukau, Sweetwaters, 1982 260
PACSA workshop with Mark Butler, Peter Kerchhof and Monika
Wittenberg, 1980s 261
PACSA protest against the Internal Security Amendment Bill, 1986 261
Neil and Creina Alcock 267
Cosmas Desmond 271
Archbishop Denis Hurley visited the Weenen road camp erected by evicted
farm tenants, 19 June 1989 272
Cremen, Roosboom and Charlestown 275
AFRA logo 277LIST OF MAPS AND FIGURES
Maps 1–3 Proposals for the implementation of the Group Areas Act in
Pietermaritzburg 15–16
Map 4g’s civil war: the regional context 45
Map 5Pietermaritzburg’s civil war: the local context 46
Figure 1Population of Pietermaritzburg by apartheid classifcation
for selected years, 1950–1985 4
Figure 2 New detentions per month, Natal Midlands, June 1986
to June 1989101
Figure 3 Estimated detainee population, Natal Midlands, June 1986
to June 1989 101
Figure 4 Detentions, Natal Midlands and South Africa, 1986 to 1989 102ABBREVIATIONS
ACTWUSA Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union of South Africa
AFRA Association for Rural Advancement
ALC African Liaison Committee
ANC African National Congress
AO advice ofce
APC Alan Paton Centre (Pietermaritzburg)
APDUSA African Peoples Democratic Union of South Africa
AZAPO Azanian Peoples Organisation
AZASM Azanian Students Movement
AZAYO Azanian Youth Organisation
BAWU Black Allied Workers Union
BC Black Consciousness
BOSS Bureau for State Security
BTR British Tyre and Rubber
CAB Complaints Adjudication Board
CAE Centre for Adult Education
CCAWUSA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union of South Africa
CED Corporation for Economic Development
CI Christian Institute
CLAC Coloured Local Afairs Committee
COIN counter-insurgency
CONTRALESA Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa
COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions
CPA Criminal Procedure Act
CPSA Communist Party of South Africa
CUSA Council of Unions of South Africa
DAB Drakensberg Administration Board
DACOM Detainees Aid Committee
DBAB Drakensberg Bantu Administration Board
DC Dependants Conference
DDD debility, dependency and dread
DESCOM Detainees Support Committee
DJWC Durban Joint Wards Committee
DSC Durban Supreme Court
ECC End Conscription Campaign
EEC European Economic Community
ELHA Edendale Lot-Holders AssociationFAWU Food and Allied Workers Union
FEDSEM Federal Theological Seminary
FOSATU Federation of South African Trade Unions
GAA Group Areas Act
GADB Group Areas Development Board
GFWBF General Factory Workers Beneft Fund
GWU General Workers Union
HRC Human Rights Committee
HRWU Howick Rubber Workers Union
ICA Industrial Conciliation Act
ICJ International Commission of Jurists
ICU Industrial and Commercial Workers Union
I-EJC Indo-European Joint Committee
IFP Inkatha Freedom Party
IIE Institute for Industrial Education
ILAC Indian Local Afairs Committee
ISA Internal Security Act
JMC joint management centre
KZG KwaZulu government
KZLA KwaZulu Legislative Assembly
KZP KwaZulu Police
LHC Local Health Commission
MASA Medical Association of South Africa
MAWU Metal and Allied Workers Union
MDM Mass Democratic Movement
MISA Maritzburg Indian Sports Association
MK Umkhonto we Sizwe
MRA Mpumalanga Regional Authority
NACTU National Council of Trade Unions
NAD Native Afairs Department
NAMDA National Medical and Dental Association
NAR Natal Archives Repository
NASCO Natal Students Congress
NEHAWU National Education Health and Allied Workers Union
NEUSA National Education Union of South Africa
NFATU Natal Federation of African Trade Unions
NGO non-governmental organisation
NIA Natal Indian Association
NIC Natal Indian CongressNIJC Natal Indian Judicial Committee
NIO Natal Indian Organisation
NMBS Natal Midlands Black Sash
NOW Natal Organisation of Women
NP National Party
NSC Natal Supreme Court
NULW National Union of Leather Workers
NUMSA National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa
NUSAS National Union of South African Students
NUTW National Union of Textile Workers
PAC Pan Africanist Congress
PACSA Pietermaritzburg Agency for Christian Social Awareness
PAR g Archives Repository
PCDRA Pentrich and Camp Drift Residents Association
PCRRA Pietermaritzburg Combined Residents and Ratepayers Association
PDL poverty datum line
PFP Progressive Federal Party
PMBCC Pietermaritzburg Council of Churches
POTWA Post and Telecommunications Workers Association
PRA Population Registration Act
PSA Public Safety Act
PWAWU Paper, Wood and Allied Workers Union
RCWU Rubber and Ca