Activist gave South Africa a level playing field
Veteran journalist Subry Govender recalls legend MN Pather’s involvement in the struggles for the promotion of non-racial sport in the country
ONE of the legends who struggled for non-racial sport in South Africa despite harassment, threats and intimidation by the apartheid security police and denial of passports was Mr M N Pather of Durban. Mr Pather, who passed away in 1984 at the age of 62, was highly-recognised and respected by the local and the international anti-apartheid fraternity, including the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid and the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa.
In 1979 when the British Sports Council Fact-Finding Mission visited South Africa to see in which way they could help white South Africa back into international sport, the immediate former secretary-general of the internationally-recognised South African Council of Sport (Sacos), Manicum Nadarajan Pather, made arrangements to meet the delegation in Durban.
The delegation included the president of the Sports Council, Dickie Jeeps, and former South African cricket star Basil D’Oliveira.
Mr Pather, who was at this time in the forefront of the fight to isolate apartheid sport, invited me along to meet the British delegation “just to see what these colonialists are up to”.
At this time, I was working for the Daily News situated at 85 Field Street (now Joe Slovo Street) in central Durban and had become a close confidante of Mr Pather since the early 1970s.
The conversation with the British delegation started off with all the necessary pleasantries and Mr Jeeps gave his version of why they were carrying out the fact-finding mission.
After a while when he found he was not having any joy in convincing Mr Pather about the sincerity of his fact-finding mission, Mr Jeeps jumped up from his seat and thumped his hands on the table.
“Now tell me Mr Pather, what do you people want? Are you people only interested in one man one vote?”
Without losing his cool, Mr Pather in a calm and diplomatic manner replied: “You can interpret our demands whichever way you want. All we are interested in is in seeing that our sportsmen and women are treated on equal terms and given full rights in the land of their birth.
“Until such time we achieve our goal, delegations such as yours will be a sheer waste of time. We are not interested in assisting the white man to get back into international sport without our demands first being met.”
Mr Jeeps, visibly shaken, picked up his documents from the table and walked away in an angry mood.
But Mr D’Oliveira, being “one of us”, apologised to Mr Pather and said:
“Listen, I am with you people totally. I only came along because I wanted these chaps to be told in my presence of what you people really want.”
Born into a large extended family in Durban in 1922, Mr Pather’s interest in sport began in 1944 when at the age of 22, he joined the Clairwood Lawn Tennis Club.
His administrative involvement began a year later when he became an official of the club.
His anti-apartheid philosophy and commitment to non-racialism began in 1958 when he joined the first non-racial tennis body, the Southern African Lawn Tennis Union.
He was elected General Secretary of the non-racial South African Council on Sport (Sacos) in 1973 when he was secretary of the Tennis Association of Southern Africa (Tasa).
During the period of his involvement in the promotion of non-racial sport and until his death in 1984 at the age of 62, Mr Pather also served as the International Correspondent of the South African Amateur Weightlifting and Bodybuilding Federation; executive member and representative of the Eastern Province Soccer Board at the level of the South African Soccer Federation (SASF), a management committee official of the Federation Professional Soccer League (FPL) and an executive member of the SASF.
In one of his campaigns Mr Pather in 1973 called on the then Wimbledon champion, Arthur Ashe, and two Japanese tennis players, Jun Kamiwazumi and Toshiro Sakai, not to take up an offer to play in the SA Open Championships at Ellis Park in Johannesburg from November 14 to 27.
Ashe, who was refused a visa in 1969 by the apartheid government, confirmed he had received a visa to participate in the Open Championships.
But Mr Pather sent him and the Japanese players a six-page memorandum as to why they should not play in the championships.
Mr Pather told this correspondent: “We have informed both Ashe and the Japanese Union that there is no mixed tennis between blacks and whites at all. White tennis players do not play with or against black tennis players. “Merely allowing a half of a dozen black players to compete against white players once a year is not tennis but a clever trick to fool the outside sporting world.”
But because of this kind of total commitment to the upliftment of the black sportsmen and women, Mr Pather paid a very heavy price for his principles.
He had been refused a passport more than six times, and when finally he was issued with one in 1979, it was withdrawn after being interrogated by the then notorious security police.
He had his telephone and mail tapped, his home shot at by unknown gunmen and made to suffer when his family members were refused passports. His younger son, Kooselan, was refused a passport in 1976 to travel to London to study veterinary science; and his eldest son, Harisagaran, was refused a passport to travel to London and India in September 1977.
He was forced to forego overseas invitations, including one from the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid; the Quebec Council of Peace and the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa to visit Algeria during the All-Africa Games in 1978. Mr Pather and the then president of SACOS, Mr Hassan Howa, were invited to address the three-day conference of the Supreme Council on “Sport in South Africa”.
Mr Pather was granted a passport suddenly in 1979 when the British Jeeps’ Commission was visiting the country.
This was at a time when he was invited to address the UN in New York.
He was invited to spend three months with the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid but on the eve of his departure his passport was seized by the security police.
In all his years as a non-racial sports administrator, Mr Pather was, on the one hand, highly respected and admired for his courage by black news persons, but on the other, he only met with nasty comments from most white sports writers.
In one interview with one of the white sports writers he dealt firmly with him when he was asked if he was not playing politics.
This is how Mr Pather responded: “Everything is politics in this country. The whole structure of South Africa is political. It is not created by us but by your white government.”
On another occasion when he was asked by a visiting German journalist whether the slogan “No normal sport in an abnormal society” was a hardline attitude, Mr Pather replied:
“We are committed to the non-racial ideology and we will not deviate from our stance until all discriminatory laws affecting sports and society are removed and all black people given the vote and have a meaningful say in running the country.
“Even the UN has resolved that there should be no sports contact until the liberation forces say so.”
Mr Pather also expressed similar sentiments on numerous occasions to this correspondent when I used to visit him at his estate agency office situated in a building next to the former Naaz Cinema in the former Queen Street (now Denis Hurley Street) area of Durban.
Once when I asked him, “Mr Pather, when will you be satisfied for South Africa’s return to international sport?” he responded by saying:
“Subry, my fellow anti-apartheid colleagues and I will only be happy when every sportsmen and women are given equal opportunities and rights to rise to the top.
“When that happens and when every national team is selected on merit, then we will know that we have achieved our goals. We will not care whether the national team that is selected is all black or all white.”
Mr Pather, throughout his years of Struggle for non-racial sport, worked with anti-apartheid activists and leaders of the calibre of Hassan Howa, George Singh, Jakes Gerwel, Norman Middleton, RK Naidoo, Don Kali, Morgan Naidoo, Ramhori Lutchman, Mr Cassim Bassa, SK Chetty, Dharam Ramlall, Abdullah Khan, Sam Ramsamy, and Krish Mackerdhuj.
In addition to the anti-apartheid sporting arena, Mr Pather was also involved in the cultural sector.
At the time of his death in 1984, he served as secretary of the Natal Tamil Vedic Society Trust.
Paying tribute to Mr Pather at his funeral in 1984, Mr Don Kali, an executive member of Tasa who practised as an attorney in Durban at this time, said: “MN made sterling contributions in the struggles for equality in sport in particular and social justice in general.
“In the wider perspective, MN will be remembered for the building of a new South African nation which will be free of racism and exploitation of man by man.”
If he was still around today, Mr Pather would have been relieved with the achievement of a non-racial and democratic society in 1994.
But it’s certain he would have been disappointed and disillusioned that millions of young people all over the country do not have the opportunities and facilities to rise to the top in most sporting fields.