Shanthie Naidoo during her activism.
Women in Solitary: Inside the Female Resistance to apartheid (Tafelberg and Routledge UK) was written by Shanthini Naidoo. It is based around the narratives of four women who experienced detention and torture in South Africa in the late 1960s when the regime tried to stage a trial to convict leading anti-apartheid activists. The book draws on extended interviews with journalist Joyce Sikhakhane-Rankin, trade unionists Shanthie Naidoo and Rita Ndzanga and activist Nondwe Mankahla. This is an extract of an interview with the late Shanthie Naidoo Tweedie.
The security branch came for her [Shanthivathie (Shanthie) Naidoo] on 13 June 1969, a few weeks after she had read about Winnie, Rita and Joyce’s detention.
"I was in bed, at home in Rockey Street. It was a normal day, I was going to go to work at Vanguard. It was Friday the 13th, if I remember. They came in and in front of my mother, said: 'Pack your bags, we are detaining you under the Terrorism Act'."
"I didn’t think I was a terrorist," the petite woman says with a smile.
