‘Comrade Swami’ remembered

GLOWING tributes were paid to Struggle veteran and the last surviving person who was present at the signing of South Africa’s Freedom Charter in 1955 at the Kliptown Conference in Soweto, Swaminathan “Swami” Karuppa Gounden.

Gounden, 93, died on Tuesday morning at St Augustine’s Hospital after a short illness. The effect of his imprisonment and torture in 1964 left him with severe pain in his knees for most of his life.

On Thursday, Gounden was afforded a special official provincial funeral at the Clare Estate Crematorium in Durban.

He was a recipient of the Order of Luthuli in silver, which was awarded by President Cyril Ramaphosa for his bravery in participating in the Struggle for freedom.

Kwazulu-natal Premier Sihle Zikalala in his eulogy delivered virtually said “with heavy hearts, we bid farewell to a revolutionary icon, a selfless activist, an organiser of the poor, and a dedicated comrade”.

“We remember a life, just two weeks short of 94 years, of Struggle, sacrifice and an unrelenting commitment to building a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, united and prosperous society based on justice, equality, the rule of law and the inalienable human rights of all.

“Comrade Swami’s life was punctuated with some of the most iconic moments in our Struggle since the 1940s. He joined the Communist Party of South Africa in 1944 in the Magazine Barracks – a Durban Corporation labour compound for Indian workers on Somtseu Road.

“In 1945, he was among the young lions led by Dr Monty Naicker who wrested control of the Natal Indian Congress from the conservative bloc. In 1946 he was an active trade unionist in the leather workers’ union and an organiser in the great Passive Resistance Campaign against the Ghetto Act of residential segregation. It was in that campaign that the president-general of

the African National Congress, Comrade Dr Alfred Bitini Xuma, travelled to the United Nations in New York to draw global attention to rising segregation and racial oppression in Southern Africa.”

Zikalala said: “When the Three Doctors Pact was signed in 1947 by the presidents of the ANC, Natal Indian Congress and Transvaal Indian Congress pledging for the very first time a platform of non-racial activism, Comrade Swami was working on the ground giving expression to the milestone agreement. So too in the 1952 Defiance Campaign Against Unjust Laws led by Madiba as volunteer-in-chief. When the Freedom Charter was drafted and presented at the historic Congress of the People in Kliptown on June 25 and June 26, Comrade Swami was there as an elected

delegate. We recall with the greatest pride that our stalwart Archie Gumede was recognised for his leadership of the Natal delegation which brought the highest quality submissions to the drafting of the Freedom Charter. In Long Walk to Freedom, Madiba spoke fondly about the representation from Natal and their input in the Freedom Charter. Comrade Swami believed in the vision of the Freedom Charter, that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white.”

In 1964 Gounden was detained in solitary confinement under the notorious 90-day law. The case collapsed when the witness was clandestinely taken out of the country.

Pravin Gordhan, Minister of Public Enterprises, in his virtual tribute, described Gounden as his friend and mentor who guided him throughout

his activist years during the Struggle.

“He was a stalwart of our Struggle who got very little recognition. Swami was a political beacon, moral beacon, a beacon of what it meant to have working class values.

“He placed himself at the service of humanity through the various organisations he was involved in. In the last 10 years he became quietly despairing, was concerned about the decline in the movement, the decline of values, the kind of politics we engaged in in the organisation, which his generation found very difficult to relate to in any kind of way, yet he was steadfast in the understanding that his political party, the ANC and where appropriate the SACP, would continue to play an important role in the lives of our people,” said Gordhan.

He said Gounden was a marvellous recorder of history.

“Well into his late 80s and early 90s he wrote books on the Point and Cato Manor that we have very little understanding of the origins of these areas and struggles that took place at that time. He would say to us today, carry on the Struggle, gain wisdom from stalwarts that are still around, understand that going back to the core values of the movement will always serve us better than where we are going at the moment,” said Gordhan.

Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Ravi Pillay said Gounden was proud of his history as a son of indentured workers, hailing from Magazine Barracks, as a shoe factory worker, a unionist, freedom fighter and civil society activist in child welfare and many other organisations.

“He was a proud and active member of the Natal Indian Congress, ANC, UDF and SACP.”

His son Vasu said his dad suffered many traumas and setbacks in life, but that did not waiver from his ideals.

“He threw blame where blame lay, at the foot of the apartheid system that instigated the riots, and he worked tirelessly from that day to educate people about the real enemy they needed to focus on and eradicate. He steadfastly pursued those ideals. In the aftermath of the recent disturbances of July he was distraught and lamented that apartheid had succeeded.

“He said it pained him that after 27 years, the same time that saw his contemporary revolutionary Mandela jailed for, he saw during that time apartheid's spatial development and economic inequality have turned back the clock on the decades of work his generations had done to build social cohesion among all the people of South Africa.

“He left us with a strong foundation to defeat the demons of apartheid and follow those who pursue the ideals of unity and tolerance. Here lies a man with no wealth, no possessions and no title, but here lies a successful man,” said Vasu.