A life dedicated to upliftment of others
During the struggle for a free, non-racial and democratic society from the 1960s to 1990s, scores of low-profile activists played vital roles One of these, who concentrated her struggle in the social and community fields to help our country realise our political freedom, was Dr Khorshed Ginwala-Rustomjee, who is now 89. In the series Struggle Heroes and Heroines – and during Women’s Month – SUBRY GOVENDER writes about the life of Ginwala, who played an important role in the attainment of democracy
SOME TIME early in 1980, a group of community, social and political anti-apartheid activists got together in Durban to discuss the establishment of a progressive newspaper to contribute to the struggles against minority rule and domination.
At this time, the newspapers that were dominant in the media field in Durban were the Daily News, Mercury, Sunday Tribune, Sunday Times,
and Ilanga.
The anti-apartheid activists came to the conclusion that there was an urgent need for a non-establishment newspaper to promote the struggles. They then decided to launch an alternative newspaper called Ukusa. One of the community and social activists who played a leading role in this brave and courageous venture at a time of acute repression, intimidation and state killings, was Dr Khorshed Ginwala-Rustomjee, a prominent anti-apartheid social and community activist, who was involved in numerous social and welfare organisations in Durban at this time.
She obtained the backing of the ANC, which was outlawed but active at underground level at that time. The ANC’s support for the Ukusa project was relayed to Ginwala through Pravin Gordhan, who, at this time, was involved in the underground activities of the ANC.
Ginwala joined the late Griffith Mxenge, the late Archie Gumede, Dr AE Gangat and this correspondent in the Ukusa venture.
“I did not play any high-profile role in the anti-apartheid political activities at this time as I was already involved in numerous social and welfare organisations,” Ginwala told me in an interview at her flat in Durban in 2008.
“But my work in child welfare and several other social and community organisations were all aimed at contributing to the overthrow of the minority government and the establishment in its place of a non-racial and democratic society.”
She conceded she was an “underground” member of the ANC during this period. Her younger sister, Frene Ginwala, democratic South Africa’s first Speaker of Parliament in 1994, was in exile for most of the 1970s and 1980s as an activist of the ANC.
Ginwala’s leadership in the Ukusa project took place at a time when she was involved in a number of social and community organisations to promote the well-being of the poor, marginalised and disenfranchised people.
At this time in 1980, Ginwala was president of the Durban Child Welfare Society, formerly the Durban Indian Child Welfare Society; the National Council of Child Welfare; the Durban Benevolent Society for the Unemployed; the Medical Womens’ Association; University Womens’ Association; Full-Time Doctors Association; and the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Trust, an organisation that she had been associated with since 1960.
Ginwala, today at the age of 89, is still the president of the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Trust, but because of ill-health, has passed on her duties to former judge, Thumba Pillay. She was also involved in the anti-South African Indian Council (Saic) campaigns in the 1980s when the National Party government had attempted to co-opt the country’s Indian-origin people.
The Ukusa project, during its short life span, played a key role in mobilising people of all races together in one of the biggest marches in Durban in 1989, and subsequently in the marches on the segregated beaches and the whites-only Addington Hospital. Workers, civic, student and sports organisations all came together in a massive show of power against the apartheid government.
Unfortunately, the Ukusa newspaper did not last because the National Party government at that time had embarked on repressive measures to sabotage progressive media organisations in Durban and around the country.
“It was very painful for all of us for having to see Ukusa closing down, because Dr Gangat, Archie Gumede, Griffith Mxenge and others wanted the newspaper to play a progressive role in the struggles against oppression and repression at the hands of the minority regime,” she said.
Ginwala’s awareness of the oppression of the African, coloured and Indian-origin people at the hands of the colonial and apartheid systems started when, at 19, she went to Dublin in Ireland to study medicine. “Here I met students from all over the world and also South Africans who were in exile. They made me aware of the oppression being committed by the white regime, and this made me think how I should become part of the struggles as well.”
As a member of the Parsee community, Ginwala knew from her parents what oppression was all about. The Parsees – originally from Iran – fled to India many centuries ago because of the oppression they suffered as a minority community.
Her grandfather, Sorabjee Ginwala, who was from the village of Ankleswar in the district of Surat in the state of Gujarat, came to South Africa in the early 1900s, but later moved to Mozambique. Her father, Naswan Noshir Ginwala, who was born in Mozambique, travelled to Johannesburg as a young man to obtain a permit to stay in South Africa. Her father was an up-and-coming businessman, who specialised in the oil industry.
“When it was time for my father to get married, he went back to India. I was born in Mumbai in 1929 and was taken as a baby to Mozambique. When I was only sixmonths-old, my parents moved to Kempton Park in Johannesburg, where my father had an oil factory.”
Here in Johannesburg her sister, Frene, and brother, Solly, were born. Her brother died at 21 after a long illness following a motor accident in Mozambique.
Young Ginwala grew up in Kempton Park and went to the St Anthony’s Primary School and also the Johannesburg Indian School, where she completed her standard six.
“After I completed my standard six my parents sent me to Mumbai where I completed my matric and obtained the Senior Cambridge Certificate. I was 19 or 20 years when my parents made arrangements for me to travel to Dublin to study medicine. I graduated in 1953 and did my internship in England.
“It was during this period that I became fully aware of the oppression of the African, coloured and Indian-origin people in South Africa at the hands of the white minority government. I met a lot of South Africans who influenced my political thinking.”
After she qualified, Ginwala returned to Johannesburg to re-join her parents. She started work as a medical doctor at the Baragwanath Hospital in the city.
After she married Rustom Rustomjee, a Durban insurance consultant, she moved to the coastal city in 1955. During this period she came into contact and interacted with leaders of the Natal Indian Congress such as Dr Kesaval Goonam, Dr Monty Naicker, Professor Fatima Meer, Ismail Meer, JN Singh, and countless other activists.
During her early years in Durban, Ginwala took over the practice of Dr Goonam in Prince Edward Street for about three years.
“I also joined the practice of Dr MGH Mayat for a year or two, before joining the paediatric department of the King Edward VIII Hospital in 1961. I remained here until 1963 when I left to open my own practice in Cato Manor. During this period, I came first hand with the struggles of the people. I interacted with local leaders and provided whatever assistance I could,” she said.
She, thereafter, set up a practice in Isipingo, and later, in the mid-1960s she started a practice in Chatsworth.
“Once again, I found myself in the midst of the social and community struggles of the people, and made contacts with the local activists such as Roy Padaychie and Satish Juggernath.”
In 1969, after consultations with various people, Ginwala travelled to England to study Hospital Administration. Once again, she interacted with leaders and members of the ANC in exile.
She returned in 1972 and served at RK Khan Hospital as the principal officer and superintendent until 1978. During this period, Ginwala and her family moved out of their home in Asherville to Reservoir Hills.
They first settled in Tulip Place in Asherville in 1964 and later moved to Nerina Road in the Asherville district.
In the mid-1980s, she played an active role in the Reservoir Hills branch of the Natal Indian Congress and later was elected chairperson of the ANC branch in Reservoir Hills in the early 1990s.
After she resigned from RK Khan Hospital in 1978, she joined the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Natal Medical School (now Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine) as a senior lecturer and acting head until 1992.
During this time she began work on primary health care which took her services to rural areas deep into Inanda and other areas. She was also a member of the progressive medical association, Namda.
“I continued to work parttime at the medical school until 1994. At all times I was interacting with the ANC and contributing to the emergence of our new non-racial democracy in April 1994.”
When Nelson Mandela became president of the new non-racial democracy in 1994, the new president appointed her as South Africa’s ambassador to Italy. She served in this position until 1999.
“Although I was not known as a political activist, I am very happy that I played some role behind the scenes and in the background to bring about our non-racial and democratic society that we enjoy today.
“It has been a long struggle, and my wish now is that all the people must enjoy the fruits of our freedom. It must not be restricted to the privileged few.”
In recent years, one of the projects she has committed most of her time and energy to is the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Centre, an organisation she had been involved with since 1960.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Dr Ginwala worked with activists and MGMC Committee members such as Ela Gandhi, Edith Skweyiya, Jeff Hadebe, Andrew Malangeni, Thumba Pillay, Kresan Naicker, Jean Manning, Yezdi Phiroz and Billy Nair.
When I interviewed her in 2008, she told me about the plans to build a memorial, library, and a health centre at the property that Gandhi had purchased in the former Prince Edward Street in the 1890s.
Together with her hard-working committee members, in 2012 Ginwala obtained the support of the South African and Indian governments, including the KZN provincial government, to build the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Centre. This dream was realised in October last year.
I visited Ginwala at her flat in Durban recently when I wanted to inform her that I was recording her life in my “Struggle Heroes and Heroines” column. I was unable to interact with her because of her ill-health, but she did recognise me and gave me the struggle salute.
Ginwala may not have been a political leader or activist in the mould of Ahmed Kathrada, Dr Yusuf Dadoo, Dr Kesaval Goonam, Dr Monty Naicker, I C Meer, Professor Fatima Meer, Billy Nair or Mewa Ramgobin, but there’s no doubt whatsoever that she was a committed social and community activist who played a significant role in the struggles for a free South Africa.
In our interview in 2008, she was clear that her involvement in the struggles was not only aimed at overthrowing the apartheid regime, but also to create a society where the most disadvantaged and under-privileged would be able to improve their social and economic conditions.
“I was solely involved to ensure that in the free and democratic South Africa, the disadvantaged and under-privileged people will have the opportunities to improve the quality of their lives.”
At a time when South Africans are observing the 100th birth anniversary of Nelson Mandela, Ginwala would also, no doubt, be sorely disappointed and disillusioned at the resurgence of racism and hatred in the country.
She would definitely say this is not the value that Mandela had fought for and died.