PRAISE FOR ‘CLASS ACTION’
Cape Town lawyer releases new book
PROFESSOR Jonathan Jansen, the former vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State, has described lawyer Charles Abrahams’s newly released book as “the most honest and truthful book I have read”.
Abrahams, who grew up in Nooitgedacht on the Cape Flats, launched his book, Class Action: In search of a
larger life, at the Book Lounge in Cape Town. He has a BProc degree from the University of the Western Cape and a Master’s degree in public international law from Leiden University in the Netherlands.
One of the major cases he has taken on is suing multinationals for colluding with the apartheid government.
In conversation with Abrahams, Jansen said of Class Action: “From the first page of the book I knew that I was going to love it. It is the most honest and truthful book I have read.”
Abrahams spoke about growing up in a family of 11 children and hearing “ghastly sounds” as his father beat his mother. On growing up on the Caper Flats, he said: “The schooling system completely collapsed. And the school was the only sanctuary. When I was still at primary school, I told the class that I wanted to become a heart surgeon one day. To my surprise the kids, including the inspector, burst out laughing. During that time everything was stacked against a coloured child.”
He said his family moved from a “sink hokkie” (a structure made of zinc) on the outskirts of Elsies River to Nooitgedacht in 1975.
“The first few months there were fantastic. I did not (foresee) the inhumanity that would emerge later. We stayed in a poor and violent area. The area is regrettably still the same.”
Abrahams established a law practice in Nooitgedacht. “A chapter in the book is devoted to many of my friends who later became gangsters. I hope this book heals the wounds for them. Through the system of apartheid, communities have been marginalised.”