The history behind the name - Chota Motala Road
Public Eye has been exploring the history behind the city's street name changes as the City of Choice celebrates its 185th anniversary this year.
Chota Motala Road (formerly Old Greytown Road) is named after the late struggle icon and fearless fighter for freedom, Dr. Mahomed Moosa (Chota) Motala.
He was highly regarded as a critical thinker, community activist and a nation builder promoting social justice. He was a man of the people who put the needs of others first.
Born in 1921 in Dundee, Northern Natal, he matriculated from Sastri College in 1938. He stowed away on a ship at the age of 18 to study medicine in Bombay, India. He cut his teeth as a political activist while still at school and became involved in student politics.
After qualifying as a doctor in 1947, he returned to South Africa and became only the second Black doctor to establish a medical practice in Pietermaritzburg. He became known as a compassionate doctor, often treating the indigent without charge.
The appalling conditions under which most his patients from the nearby Black townships lived, re-ignited his political activism. He played a significant role in reviving the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in
Pietermaritzburg and in 1950 he was elected chairperson of the local branch of the NIC.
Together with other members of the NIC, he formed a close bond with the local branch of the African National Congress (ANC), whose prominent leaders included Archie Gumede and Moses Mabhida.
When the Natal Midlands Committee of the Congress of the People was established, Motala was elected joint chairperson together with Baba Gumede. This organisation mobilised the local community to provide input for the Freedom Charter.
Motala's home in Boom Street was the venue for numerous meetings of the ANC and attendees included Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, with whom he forged strong friendships. He also knew Chief 'Inkosi' Albert Luthuli and regarded him as a very important mentor.
On December 5, 1956, his home was raided by state security agents and he was arrested for treason. Together with Gumede and Luthuli, he was taken to Johannesburg to stand trial. The trial lasted three years and although his medical partners [Dr. Vasu Chetty and Dr. Omar Essack] managed to keep his practice open, the trial prevented him from seeing his family as often as he would have liked.
The charges against him were dropped in 1959. He said that although the trial was frustrating, it helped him strengthen his friendship with Mandela, Sisulu and Oliver Tambo.
After the Sharpeville uprising, Motala was detained for five months and in 1963 was slapped with a five year banning order. The banning order restricted him to the Pietermaritzburg area.
He was again detained under the state of emergency in the late 1980's but was released because of ill-health.
When political organisations were unbanned in 1990, Motala was elected chairperson of the Pietermaritzburg northern areas branch of the ANC. He was later appointed as the South African ambassador to Morocco (1996 to 1999).
He died on May 25, 2005.