Moosa leaves behind a rich legacy of selfless service to the disadvantaged
ESSA MOOSA was a man of many parts. Many knew him more as a lawyer, judge, political activist, ANC operative and Khurdish campaigner. In a relationship spanning about 45 years, I was fortunate to see another side of this incredibly versatile man.
I boarded with the Moosa family in the 1970s at their Surrey Estate house and was amazed at the number of people who would rock up at all hours of the night to consult “die prokureur” – many carrying small parcels. Moosa was always ready to see them, to his wife, Fatie’s understandable annoyance. The parcels were invariably thank-you offerings of samoosas or biscuits in lieu of payment. The queues never abated, even on weekends. To break away he would jump at opportunities for a weekend outside Cape Town. But these “trips” (as we named them) were often not pure fun.
He would direct us off the N2 or N1 to Napier or Barrydale or a remote dorpie like Slangrivier to check on a shopkeeper he had set up in business, purely out of his humanitarian drive with no material benefit to himself. Or he’d take us to a prison in the South Cape to offer legal representation to a prisoner who could ill-afford it. The respect he commanded among prison wardens made it a lot easier for him to gain access during weekends or at unreasonable hours.
Sometimes on a trip, the battle to find accommodation would not be too much of a problem for Moosa. He’d confidently stride into a whites-only hotel, recite some Arabic verses at the reception desk, introduce himself as a Saudi oil trader, confuse the establishment about a law affecting foreigners and promptly secure a room.
Moosa commanded a lot of respect in non-establishment media circles in the 1970s and 1980s, availing himself for black journalist functions and influencing heavyweights like Jakes Gerwel and Alan Boesak to address meetings. It was that early involvement which laid the ground for him to become chairperson of Cape Town’s two best known alternative publications, Grassroots and South, and earn him the affectionate title of “Mr Chairman” among comrades. He entrenched democratic values at Grassroots through his broad appeal and by ensuring that everyone had their say. Thus Grassroots evolved as a model of a broad-based alternative media platform which helped lay the foundation for the United Democratic Front in later years. His fastidiousness in accounting for public funds rubbed off on many of us and comrades were held accountable for each copy of Grassroots which they distributed.
In the early days at South it was more his signature dress of high heels and bell bottoms that caused a stir and raised giggles among staff than his legal vetting. A naughty boyish streak characterised his actions at times. Like an occasion in Athlone in the 70s when Fatie came to fetch him from a party. He was nowhere to be found, only to emerge much later from a guava tree in the backyard. He loved those type of pranks, hiding away on another occasion in a Grand Piano at a dance party.
Important decisions affecting his wellbeing were often taken on the spur of the moment. Driving once between Oudtshoorn and George, puffing away at cigarette after cigarette and with me nagging about his smoking, he shouted “okay I’ll give up”, rolled down the car window and hurled the carton of Stuyvesant into the Outeniqua Pass. That’s the last time I saw him light up a fag. He stopped eating red meat after observing in a restaurant how differently a bunch of rib eaters behaved compared to a table of vegetarians.
His focus was always disadvantaged people of colour even in religious organisations in which he was involved. Born out of the Muslim Assembly, he played a key role in the launch of the Community Action Trust (Commat) which saw monies from the Athlone Fair fund-raiser being diverted to broadbased community projects. Gerwel chaired Commat. In his final days on the Bench, it was the very high incidence of alcohol abuse in cases which he heard that pre-occupied his time and his representations to the government.
Moosa walked tall for his sacrifices for ongoing change in our country, will be a beacon of unscrupulous honesty and integrity and leaves a very rich legacy of selfless service for disadvantaged people.
Seria is a former award-winning journalist, trade unionist, businessman and anti-apartheid activist