Thembile Ndabeni
Cape Town - If it was not for journalists like Ruth First, the international community would not have known about apartheid’s crime against humanity.
The media had broken down details of the crime for the global community, the community that declared apartheid a crime against humanity.
This exposure increased pressure from the international community against the evil, murderous apartheid regime. Even people from the imperialist superpowers like Britain and the US supported the Struggle against apartheid.
Journalists like First played a significant role in the Struggle. They contributed to mass mobilisation, a pillar of the Struggle, and also to another pillar, international solidarity.
For mass mobilisation to take place or be consolidated, awareness plays a crucial and central role.
People act out of awareness because it starts from an individual spreading the information. This opened eyes and created another fighter against apartheid, Reverend Beyers Naude. Even many people on the other side got informed and crossed the floor. It then spread, leading to international solidarity. One good example is Sharpeville/Langa Massacre.
First was once the editor of the New Age (not the Gupta owned one). She contributed to organising the first broadcasts of Radio Freedom.
Being the victim of the parcel bomb, First was a clear demonstration of the cold-bloodedness and heartlessness of the white minority colonial settler apartheid regime.
To think that those cold-blooded selfish murderers did that to another human being, a defenceless, unarmed woman. Yet they have the backing of people who perceive themselves as Christians.
With the contribution of her journalism background, First wrote and edited a lot of work that was contributing to the struggle for liberation of South Africa and the advancement of the cause of Africa generally.
It was not a mistake that she was appointed a professor and research director in Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. That is where her life ended.
“There she was killed by a letter bomb, which almost certainly originated from the South African military, following the Unesco conference at the Centre” (Peter Joyce, A Concise Dictionary of South African Biography,1999:90).
She was a political activist in her own right, not under the name of her husband Joe Slovo. Her political activism was drawn from her Marxist family. Both her parents were founder members of the Communist Party of South Africa, later renamed the South African Communist Party (SACP).
Her household was the venue of intense political debate between people across the colour and class line.
That was why it was easy for her to understand the Struggle and the plight of the poor. She supported the 1946 mineworkers’ strike, the Passive Resistance Campaign by Indians and struggles revolving around the outlawing of communism.
As a well-informed Marxist and an internationalist, she travelled to China, the Soviet Union, and Africa. She was a member of the SACP underground and involved in bringing closer the ties between SACP and the ANC.
She contributed to the formation of the South African Congress of Democrats in 1953. She was part of the drafting committee of the Freedom Charter but could not attend the Congress of the People in 1955.
She was served a banning order. Together with her husband Joe Slovo, they were part of the Treason Trial. As much as she was not a member of the “Rivonia crew”, she was arrested and kept in solitary confinement. She was later released and immediately rearrested and held again for almost a month.
This led to her attempting suicide. She had to flee the country together with her children soon after her release to join her husband who had already fled to Britain. She joined the Anti-Apartheid Movement.
Her book “117 Days”, based on her arrest and interrogation in 1963 was published in 1965. It was also made into a film and she was playing herself.
The butchers slaughtered an unarmed defenceless woman and went down in history as prime evils. She went down as a heroine, a good human being that sacrificed the privileges of being white.
Her family are proud of her, for her selflessness, and for her sacrifice. I do not think she would have, like other fellow journalists, changed and promoted white supremacy.
That she is not part of the real history syllabus (curriculum), is a shame.
The ANC is a gatekeeper of white-monopoly-capital, it is not a real government but a bunch of comprador-bourgeoisie. A small failure like changing history syllabuses is a betrayal of activists, compatriots, heroes/heroines. This is the least that could be done for them, especially those who were never honoured.
Not going to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to reveal the evil actions, atrocities they carried against fellow human beings, was a true reflection of who they are.
What was difficult to reveal, admit and apologise for killing other fellow humans? That would have healed both sides. They would have made families of the victims have closure and heal to a certain extent. On the other hand, they themselves would have peace and go to the grave peacefully. They would go down in history as villains, murderers, beasts and evil.
Ruth First went down in history as heroine and therefore honoured in many respects.
Once more the new curriculum under the democratic dispensation is found wanting. She is not part of it. The worst is that during this Women’s Month nobody seems to either generally know or remember her.
Maybe people/comrades who know forgot the month she died. But it is still time, it is still August, Women’s Month, the month she died.
August 17, 2022 marked the 40th anniversary of her death. Therefore, it is an opportunity for her to be celebrated. It is never too late.
Cape Times