When a child of Clairwood came home
A mid cheering from the large crowd and the throaty roar of Harley-Davidson outriders, Judge Navanethem “Navi” Pillay returned to her roots in Clairwood last Sunday.
There is an ancient African proverb that states “it takes a village to raise a child”, and this could not have been more true than for Pillay, who recounted how the community of Clairwood made it possible for her to pursue tertiary education.
Pillay attained top marks in high school but her father, a humble bus driver who placed huge emphasis on education, unfortunately could not afford to send her to university.
“My school appealed to the community to help raise funds to pay for my university education.
“I will be eternally grateful to the people of Clairwood for the support that I received,” said Pillay, who was the guest of honour at the Clairwood Roots Union 2016.
Pillay, who served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, said growing up in the close-knit community of Clairwood had prepared her for a life of high office.
She took those attending the reunion of present and former Clairwood residents on a whirlwind tour of the challenges and responsibilities that accompanied this office, and spoke of her engagement with world leaders, both individually and in the collective context of the UN.
During her 28 years as a lawyer in South Africa, Pillay defended anti-apartheid activists and helped expose the use of torture and the poor conditions of political detainees.
In 1995, she was nominated by then president Nelson Mandela as the first woman of colour to serve as a judge in the High Court of South Africa.
Soon afterwards, she was elected by the UN General Assembly to serve as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
She recounted that during that tenure, she helped establish that rape and sexual assault could constitute acts of genocide.
“From time immemorial, rape had been regarded as spoils of war. After my judgment at the ICTR, rape will be considered a war crime. We sent out a strong signal that rape is no longer a trophy of war.”
Pillay quipped that as a young girl she encountered untarred roads full of potholes in Clairwood. “I remembered this vividly when I once had to get out and help push the luxury chauffeur-driven car that had got stuck in a pothole in Arusha (Tanzania) on my way to the ICTR.”
Pillay appealed to the crowd to work together to confront the challenges such as homelessness and unemployment facing South Africa today.
She also warned against racial hatred and segregation and said there was no place for “Islamophobia, Afrophobia and xenophobia”.
Siva Naidoo, one of the organisers behind the Clairwood Roots Reunion, said he was overwhelmed by the strong community support for the get-together, which helped rekindle old memories in a “family picnic” atmosphere.
Scores of men and women over 80 years old were honoured with trophies presented by reunion committee members Ronnie Vengan, Shanba Naidoo, Ricky Naidoo, Salosh Naidoo, Manogran Naidoo, Sidney Govindsamy and Jackson Pillay, among others.