WHAT DID HE DO?
Labour activist, medical doctor, organiser of the Transvaal branch of the African Food and Canning Workers’ Union and the first white South African to die in police detention
WHO WAS HE?
Neil Hudson Aggett was born in Nanyuki, Kenya, on 6 October 1953, the first-born of Aubrey and Joy Aggett. He was schooled in Kenya, and when his parents moved to South Africa in 1963, he attended Kingswood College in Grahamstown (1964-1970). In 1971 he enrolled at the University of Cape Town to study medicine. He completed his medical degree in 1976.
As a doctor, Aggett was exposed to the hardships and poverty-related diseases of workers. He worked mainly in overcrowded black hospitals in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape and Tembisa in Gauteng. While working at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, Aggett won the trust and respect of staff and patients alike through his enthusiasm towards his job. In an attempt to understand his patients and make communication easier, he learned isiZulu.
It was at Baragwanath that Aggett became involved in the trade union movement. He championed workers’ rights through his involvement with the Transvaal branch of the African Food and Canning Workers’ Union (AFCWU), gaining unionists trust, and was appointed organiser. Aggett worked full-time without pay, taking additional weekend night shifts at the hospital to support himself.
In 1979, he led the organising of the Fatti’s & Moni’s boycott in Isando and Tembisa. The following year he became the secretary of the growing Transvaal AFCWU.
In 1981, he took an active part in the “Langa summit” that brought together trade unions divided by their attitude to align themselves with openly political and community struggles. His aim was to see trade unions united in a mass democratic movement mobilising for the health and prosperity of workers.
Aggett became a target of harassment by the Security Branch of the South African Police and the state labelled him a communist. In late 1981, Aggett was detained for his role in labour organisation. He was taken to Pretoria Central Prison and later transferred to John Vorster Square in Johannesburg.
Fellow detainees remember seeing Aggett, a strong and healthy man, diminished to a weak and trembling shell. In the last week of his life, he underwent an interrogation session that lasted for 62 hours.
He died in detention on 5 February, 1982, allegedly by hanging himself with a scarf. He became the 51st person to die in detention and the first white person to die under these circumstances.
After the collapse of apartheid in 1994, the case of Aggett came before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The “no-one-to-blame” verdict was overturned by the TRC.
Major Arthur Benoni Cronwright and Lieutenant Steven Whitehead were held directly responsible by the TRC “for the mental and physical condition of Dr Aggett which led him to take his own life”.