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Date
: 07/06/2003
Source: The Presidency
Title: J Zuma: Launch of MP Naicker Collection
ADDRESS BY THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA,
JACOB ZUMA, ON THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCH OF THE MP NAICKER
COLLECTION, University Of Durban-Westville, 7 June 2003
The Naicker Family
Members of the University Council and Senate
Distinguished Guests
It is a great day for us all today, as we officially hand-over
brilliant pieces of writing, edited, written and collected, by a
revolutionary whose life was dedicated to the cause of a just and
democratic society.
The presentation of Comrade MP's private collection to the
University of Durban-Westville today is a fitting tribute to a
great revolutionary fighter who dedicated his entire life to the
freedom of all South Africans.
The unbanning of the ANC unleashed a series of events leading to
the first democratic elections and the process of transforming our
country. Another very critical part of the transformation - is to
build archives that will transform people's minds and provide
information about the struggle for liberation.
The launch of the MP Naicker Collection today is an invaluable
contribution to this process. In handing over this collection, we
are also celebrating the life and contribution of Comrade MP to our
country.
Comrade Mariemuthoo Naicker, known affectionately by all simply as
Comrade MP, was part of the Communist leadership in our country
that played a leading role in the Congress Movement for the
advancement of the National Liberation struggle.
His early Marxist teachings enabled him to combine both national
and the class struggle and became a leader both in the Communist
Party and the Congress movement.
The late Comrade Moses Mabhida, who was the General Secretary of
the South African Communist Party, and who worked very closely with
Comrade MP Naicker in the 1950's, always maintained that the
foremost task of a Communist is to be a revolutionary fighter in
the struggle for national liberation.
The communists in our country were among the most advanced cadres
of our movement and worked tirelessly to build the ANC and the
broad democratic movement. What distinguished the communists was
their discipline, their commitment, their political maturity and
their non-sectarian style of work.
The communists in the likes of Comrade MP and others in the SACP
never sought to dominate democratic organisations, but instead
worked to unite the broad masses of the people both in racial and
class terms behind the ANC led alliance.
The communists in the ranks of the movement were exemplary in their
conduct, both theoretically and in practical struggle. They were
able to resolve problems in a matured way and thus helped to unite
the entire movement, resulting in taking the struggle
forward.
It is in the fight for national liberation and for the advancement
of the National Democratic Revolution that a Communist advances the
cause of the working people of his country.
In the era of the anti-colonial struggle, Communists were in the
forefront of the revolutionary struggle to defeat the colonial and
imperialist domination in their countries.
The Communist Party under the able leadership of comrades such as
Moses Kotane, Dr Yusuf Dadoo, Braam Fischer and others had
correctly identified the colonial character of South Africa and
leading role of the ANC in the struggle for national liberation.
This leading role of the ANC is still relevant today in this era of
the transformation of the National Democratic Revolution.
Together with Dr Dadoo, Dr Naicker, Cassim Amra, Derby Singh, AKM
Docrat and other leaders of the Indian community, MP contributed
immensely in the transformation of the NIC and Transvaal Indian
Congress, and made the two organisations in tune with the workers
and the poor.
It was this new leadership known as the Dadoo-Naicker leadership
that led the Indian people into the 1946 Passive Resistance
Campaign and the signing of the Xuma/Dadoo-Naicker pact between the
ANC and the South African Indian Congress.
Comrade MP participated in the various campaigns, including the
1946 Passive Resistance Campaign against the discriminatory Asiatic
Land tenure and Indian Representation Act, which ushered in many
decades of struggle in which the Indian people participated under
the leadership of the Indian Congress.
Together with leaders like Dr Yusuf Dadoo, Dr Monty Naicker, IC
Meer, JN Singh, Dawood Seedat, George Poonen and many others, MP
was one of the volunteers that went into prison during this
campaign.
This campaign received international support and led to the United
Nations rejecting the incorporation of South West Africa into South
Africa and also resulted in the Government of India imposing
complete economic sanctions against South Africa.
Cde MP also played a leading role in the Defiance Campaign of 1952
where his wife Saro also served a term of imprisonment.
He was also active in the Congress of the People Campaign, in the
mass protest actions of the 1950's, the bus and the potato boycotts
and many more campaigns.
Comrade MP was among the 156 leaders of the congress alliance who
were arrested in 1956 on a charge of high treason. The Apartheid
state tried to prove that the Freedom Charter was a subversive
Communist document advocating a violent revolutionary over throw of
the Apartheid regime. After a number of years the state case
collapsed and all the accused were acquitted.
His prolific writing skills proved to be invaluable for the
movement.
He became the Natal editor of the weekly progressive paper called
ADVANCE that after its banning became The NEW AGE.
The New Age office that was situated in Lodson House opposite the
Congress offices in Lakhani Chambers became an active centre for
many of Congress activities in the late fifties and the early
sixties.
I have memories of visiting the New Age offices to meet with
Comrade MP and a dedicated New Age staff member comrade Bafana
Duma.
Being on the 7th floor, MP's office was an ideal spot to watch the
activities of the security police on the road below who were
monitoring the Congress offices at Lakhani Chambers.
During the peasant revolt in Natal in 1959 Comrade MP played a
vital role in exposing the harsh conditions of the peasant in the
rural areas and New Age actively mobilised the peasants to resist
the Bantu Authority Act and the culling of their cattle.
One of his biggest scoops as a journalist was the story on the
kidnapping of Comrade Anderson Ganyile by the Apartheid security
forces.
Older comrades here would remember that Comrade Ganyile was a
leader in the Pondo Peasant Revolt and had fled to Lesotho to
escape arrest. The Ganyile affair was typical of Comrade MP's work
as an editor of New Age.
The paper reported on the bus and beer hall boycotts in Durban and
many other campaigns. The New Age office became an important centre
for the prosecution of the daily struggle in Natal. It was in the
New Age office that the leadership of the congress Movement met at
7 am on a daily basis.
Here would gather Comrades Moses Mabida, Steven Dlamini, Curnick
Ndlovu, Joe Matthews, Billy Nair, Rowley Arenstein, George Mbhele
and MP to discuss tactics and plan the daily struggle of the
Congress Movement in Natal.
When the ANC was banned in 1960 MP was detained under the State of
Emergency and was later to go into exile.
In 1966 MP was appointed as ANC Director of Information and
Publicity and editor of Sechaba, which became the mouthpiece of our
movement both internationally and in the country.
MP believed in and championed the cause of the unity of all the
oppressed people, and especially believed in Afro-Indian unity and
worked all his life for the unity of all the oppressed people in
this country.
The work of people like Cde MP, which contributed towards the
liberation of this country, must be accessible to all our people.
By donating this collection to the University of Durban Westville,
the Naicker family has made an important contribution in the
education of our people and has also enriched the collections and
archives of this University.
We must salute the Naicker family for the fact that Sechaba, which
was edited by Cde MP, will now remain for posterity, not only to
honour his own journalistic prowess, but also to introduce Sechaba
to a broader community who had previously been denied access to
this vision of the African National Congress.
Congratulations to this University as well on being chosen as the
home of this priceless collection.
It is our hope that many will utilise this very important
collection and that this will generally improve the country's
knowledge base.
Map
