Yunus Mohamed, a man of the people

URING the period of struggle against the apartheid regime in the 1970s and 1980s, Yunus Ismail Mahomed, attorney by profession, came to the fore.

Born in Johannesburg on December 30, 1950, Mahomed became politically aware in his teens while attending high school in Benoni, near Johannesburg.

A year before he matriculated in 1967, he took part in his first anti-system action when he distributed pamphlets against the celebrations of the apartheid government’s Republic Day.

His political awareness and activism against the apartheid regime grew as he studied law at the former University of Durban Westville. Here he came into contact with students of the calibre of Pravin Gordhan, Yunus Shaik, Mo Shaik, Krish Govender, Saths Cooper, Strini Moodley, Jay Naidoo, Zak Yacoob, Roy Padayachie and Yunus Suleman.

While still a student at UDW, Mahomed joined the underground of the ANC and the SACP in the early 1970s.

After graduating, he was admitted as an attorney in 1976, a time when pupils took to the streets in Soweto and other parts of the country to protest against the inferior and unequal education imposed by the apartheid system. Mahomed joined the anti-apartheid law firm Shun Chetty and Company, where his activism gained momentum.

In 1979 he set up his own practice, immersing himself in the social, community and anti-apartheid political activities. It was only a matter of time before he became well-known at that time as a human rights advocate. He joined the Natal Indian Congress and served with icons like George Sewpersadh, MJ Naidoo, Dr Jerry Coovadia, Thumba Pillay, Swaminathan Gounden, Dr Farook Meer and Paul Devadas David.

At this time of the struggle, he became known as “YM” or “Yunus” to his group of comrades and friends in the media.

He took an active interest in struggles of the people of Phoenix in Durban with activists like Pravin Gordhan and Roy Sookuram in the Phoenix Working Committee. He also became involved in setting up civic organisations in Chatsworth, Tongaat and parts of the then Natal province.

With Gordhan and others, he became active in organisations such as the Chatsworth Housing Action Committee, the Durban Housing Action Committee and the Natal Rates Committee in Natal Province.

He was heavily involved with the Democratic Lawyers’ Association (DLA).

He was active against the apartheid regime’s attempts to co-opt the Indian-origin people to join the tricameral (racial) parliament for whites, coloureds and Indian-origin people in the early 1980s. African people were excluded from this farcical development because the regime stated that African people should seek their political rights in bantustans such as KwaZulu, Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana and Venda.

Mahomed played a crucial role in the following anti-SAIC campaigns to ensure that the majority of the people of Indian-origin boycotted the SAIC elections. He did not spare charlatans, collaborators and “ja baas” people who participated in the elections.

When the UDF was launched in 1983, Mahomed was the Natal regional secretary, working with leaders of the calibre of the late Archie Gumede, Victoria Mxenge, George Sewpersadh, MJ Naidoo, Mewa Ramgobin, Farook Meer, Krish Govender, Paul David and Professor Jerry Coovadia.

At this time, the apartheid regime stepped up its repression and Mahomed was one of the activists who was detained and tortured by the notorious Security Branch. He was held in solitary confinement for five months.

He was detained in 1985 during the Inanda riots, believed to have been initiated by the apartheid security establishment to have the area incorporated into the then KwaZulu bantustan.

Despite harassment and intimidation, Mahomed continued with his anti-apartheid struggles and, when Mxenge was brutally killed in 1985 by agents of the apartheid state, he spoke out forcefully and fearlessly.

‘Cowardly’

This is what he told me at that time about the murder of Mxenge: “The assassination of Mrs Victoria Mxenge, senior executive member and treasurer of the UDF, was a cowardly and calculated act. The murder of the mother of a nation’s struggles for liberation is an act that the people and their organisations will only react to with rising anger, frustration and a desire for vengeance.

“In the light of systematic campaigns by the state to eliminate the UDF, this murder will be seen by many as the work of the state or its allies.”

“The UDF has already witnessed abductions and murders of Matthew Goniwe, Sparrow Mkonto, Fort Calata and Sicelo Mhlauli. Murders remain unsolved and the perpetrators of such violence remain at large to continue their murderous deeds.

“These senseless murders will not stop the people’s march to freedom.”

Mahomed, like many of his fellow activists, adopted a conscious decision in 1994 to take a back seat after the country’s first democratic elections.

He instead became involved with the Kagiso Trust and other developmental organisations for the promotion of social and economic upliftment of the disadvantaged.

Those closely associated with him knew him as a committed activist who was uncompromising in promoting the values and principles of the struggle.

Gordhan, the current beleaguered Finance Minister who was the Receiver of Revenue in 2008 when Mahomed died, told me that Yunus Mahomed, like other Struggle stalwarts, stood out as a committed activist.

He said: “Throughout his political life and beyond, he’s been a highly principled and uncompromising activist whose values have never changed, have never been compromised, and in that sense he was a unique individual, playing a very unique role in our struggles.”

Another political activist, Coovadia, who was with the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine at that time, also told me that in Yunus Mahomed, South Africa had lost a committed activist.

“He was an enormously important individual for the freedom of this country, for the development of this country, and other than losing someone who was critical for the future of this country, I have also lost a friend like many of us who have lost someone close to our hearts.”

His life partner, Dhaya Pillay, a judge of the High Court, paid this tribute at the time of Mohamed’s passing: “Over 29 years I was privileged to be Yunus’s friend, comrade, business and life partner. These four facets made for a unique rapport that transcended cultural and religious differences.

“Basic values of truth, honesty and human kindness were hallmarks of Yunus’s relationships with everyone with whom he interacted. His brutal frankness to charlatans was matched only by the gentle love and care exuded towards friends and family. He was uncompromising on issues that mattered and refused to profit at the expense of principle.

“All who encountered him can paraphrase a popular song to say that he raised us up to be more than we can be. For that, thanks, YM.”

As a journalist, I knew Yunus Mohamed, like scores of others during the period of struggles, as one of the rare breed of activists who was totally committed to the values, principles and morals of the Struggle. It’s hoped we now could learn something from the memorable life of Yunus Ismail Mohamed.