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The South African Communist Party (SACP) conveys heartfelt condolences to the family of Comrade Swaminathan ‘Swami’ Karuppa Gounden (94), who passed away on Tuesday 30 November 2021. He was a veteran of our struggle for liberation and social emancipation.

The SACP also sends condolences to the entire South African liberation movement, the working class, and the people of South Africa for the loss of our revolutionary stalwart.

Comrade Swami, as he was affectionately known among his comrades, was one of the few remaining stalwarts who took part in the Congress of the People in Kliptown, Soweto, in 1955, which laid down the vision of the South African people. The result of the Congress of the People was the promulgation of the celebrated Freedom Charter.

Comrade Swami joined the SACP in 1944 and wholeheartedly fought against the colonial and apartheid regime. He practically contributed to the resistance struggles, actively organising the people to take part in their own struggles. Among those struggles were the 1946–48 Passive Resistance Campaign, which was a response to the Smuts government’s introduction of the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Bill.

The trade union movement also benefitted from the contributions of Comrade Swami. He was also active in the underground structures of the African National Congress. For his revolutionary activities in the underground, he was arrested in 1964 by the apartheid regime under the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950. The apartheid regime kept him in brutal solitary confinement for three months. As the State did not gather sufficient evidence to convict him, he was acquitted conditionally at the beginning of 1965, but remained listed as a terrorist under the Suppression of Communism Act and was only removed from the list in 1991 after the unbanning of political organisations.

The apartheid regime barred Comrade Swami from political activities. Determined to make his contributions to the liberation of the people, Comrade Swami refused to abide by the apartheid regime’s dictatorship. He continued his activism among the masses, taking part in many community activities in resistance to apartheid. In 1983, he defied the regime’s barring and attended the launch of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Cape Town and became an active member of the UDF, attending meetings and speaking on public forums.

In 2018, President of the Republic, Cyril Ramaphosa, bestowed the Order of Luthuli on Comrade Swami for his lifelong and courageous fight against apartheid oppression. The President further noted that Comrade Swami never stopped living with the courage of his convictions in his pursuit of equality for all, even after the 1994 democratic breakthrough.

Comrade Swami received many more awards for his dedication to the liberation struggle as well as active engagement in community service towards improving the living conditions of the people of South Africa.

In memory of Comrade Swami, the SACP calls for the unity of the trade union movement, as well as our liberation movement, to put people before profit in the people’s struggle for social emancipation.

Issued by SACP