My Dad Was Arrested and Tortured Fighting Apartheid
door close. My mother rushes to open the front door, and I slowly follow. By the time I get to the hallway, Father is holding Mother and crying. He looks like someone has roughed him up, and this makes me even more upset and frightened, but I did not understand the severity of the situation. After a bit he pours himself a drink, sits down and lights a cigarette. As we talk, I learn that he is an advocate. This was pre-1994 South Africa, and he had been arrested by security police. They wanted to get information on those opposing the government. They had tried to force my father to talk. A few years later, my siblings and I were sitting at the breakfast table waiting for Mother to give us breakfast. It was a Sunday mornig, and Father By Divinia Pillay was still sleeping. The phone rang, and A kaleidoscope of colour adorns the Mother ran to answer it so Father would prayer room at the back of our home in not awaken. Father’s cousin was on the Malabar. I sit on the floor and look up at line, and she asked to speak to him. the A3 poster-size portraits of each deity He took the call in his study. On the hanging on the wall. Each of the four wall to the left of this statue, a poster of portraits depict four deities, symbolise Chris Hani towered over Father. The poster different aspects of our lives, and the immortalized the President of the South spectrum of colour usually calms me. African Communist Party in his signature On this particular night, my father had pose in his Umkhonto Wesiswe uniform. not come home from work, and I am worried. After a few minutes, I walked into the At our home, we always called study just as Father was ending the call. if we were going to be late. “Chris Hani was killed this In the prayer room, I kneel and beg morning,” he said quietly. whatever greater being out there to let The news shook me to THE core. Father come home immediately. I go back Later we learned that Mr. Hani had been to the kitchen where Mother and my shot in front of one of his daughters. sister are sitting with a family friend who I realized that it could have been my dad had chosen to stay with us until Father who was gunned down, and I could have comes home or we hear something. been the one who witnessed the shooting. Father’s silver Chevrolet pulls up in The next Monday, the local newspaper front of our house, and we hear the car published a photo of Mr. Hani with a gunshot wound to the head. After 1994 I learned that my parents had kept several incidents from me. Father had been in a car accident and had a shoulder wound that Mother had to dress every night until it had healed. The tyres of his car had been shot, causing the accident. Father and I recently watched Country of My Skull, a film based on a novel by Antjie Krog. In one of the scenes, a journalist is investigating the death of a hero in the A poster of Chris Hani, president of the South African Commufight against apartheid and nist Party, in Divinia Pillay’s home is one of her memories of the finds a torture chamber. apartheid struggle.
Over time I have learned that South Africa can be proud of its diversity in race and religion and grateful for reconciliation.
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Reflections on Freedom 2013
While we watched, Father described each of the torture tools in the scene. Similar tools had been used on him. Exposure to the struggle against apartheid gave me a passion for what this nation can be, and I decided that to ensure a great future, we must embrace multiculturalism in South Africa. I decided to pursue careers in journalism, and international education. I believe media have a responsibility to help build our nation. Thus, I began working for the Office for International Education at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University as a marketing assistant and copywriter. Here I gained experience in marketing for International Education and developed an affiliation for International Education as a vehicle for multiculturalism in Higher Education Institutions. In 2008, I was selected as one of the scholars for the Trent Lott Leadership Program, focusing on race, religion and reconciliation in post-conflict nations. This was my first trip abroad. I learned that race, religion and reconciliation had different meanings for different people, and I recognized the importance of these different meanings. The Trent Lott Leadership Program was one of the pivotal events of my life. It taught me to look at people and their feelings and where they have come from before passing judgments and expectations in terms of my own beliefs. It was at this stage that I embraced opportunities that would assist me in following a career that would enable me to learn more about culture and diversity in a nation that can be proud of these qualities. In 2009, I was appointed as an Assistant Short Program coordinator for the NMMU Office for International Education. I coordinate and run short-term programs for international students from outside the U.S., including the Trent Lott Leadership Program. In November of 2009, I was appointed as the Study Abroad Coordinator for students and in 2011, I was inducted into the Golden Key International Honours Society for volunteering as an advisor for the chapter on the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University campus. I continue to be motivated by the challenges Father faced as he and his colleagues battled to bring freedom and equality for all South Africans.
