Hundreds of comrades converged on Jan Smuts Airport in 1972 to see Shanthie Naidoo Tweedie off to exile after she was eventually granted an exit permit by the apartheid regime.
SHANTHIE Naidoo-Tweedie’s passing last week at the age of 91marks the closing of yet another chapter in the epic struggle for South African freedom.
Our last engagement with her was at the launch of The Indian Africans which celebrated among subjects the struggle of Indian indentured workers and the activists whose sacrifice birthed a free and democratic South Africa.
She and her fellow activist husband, Dominic Tweedie, sat quietly and unnoticed at the rear of businessman Roger Lutchman’s boardroom in Johannesburg. When eventually our eyes met, the programme was stopped entirely to recognise and honour her and her family’s lifetime of struggle. The book was presented to her and the authors had the opportunity for a historic photograph.
Her political lineage spanning four generations of continuous activism is instructive in unpacking her fearless and defiant spirit.
