Neil Aggett Memorial Lecture Kingswood College

Published: 25 September 2006
Principal, Programme Director, Ladies and Gentlemen. Let me begin by thanking you and the organizers of this event for the great honour you have bestowed on me by inviting me to speak on this truly auspicious occasion. I have unfortunately not had many opportunities to revisit my old school since I left many years ago, but I regard it as a particular privilege to be able to do so through participating in this commemoration of the life and contribution of a prominent Old Kingswoodian. I personally never had an opportunity to meet Neil Aggett, either while he was here at Kingswood or later on. I cannot, therefore, offer any personal recollections or anecdotes and will, therefore, reflect on the public dimensions of his life. Neil Aggett was an extraordinary Old Kingswoodian and South African. He took full advantage of the opportunities given to him of a quality education here at Kingswood, and went on to the University of Cape Town to study and qualify as a medical doctor. After graduating, he dedicated himself to the cause of building the Food and Canning Workers’ Union. He was a trade union organizer, activist and leader. He was detained in one of the Botha regime’s many States of Emergency and, on 5 February 1982, was found dead in a police cell. There are many ways that we can look at the life and death of Neil Aggett. We can focus on the circumstances of his death. He died in the custody of the apartheid regime’s police. He was one of a hundred or so people known to have died in the apartheid regime’s custody. In this regard, he followed in the steps of well-known figures like Ahmed Timol, who in 1971 fell after being held out of a tenth floor window and Steve Biko, who was beaten to death by Security Police in 1977. There were a variety of direct causes of death of people in detention and some extremely bizarre explanations offered by the apartheid regime at the time. What they all had in common, was that victims, without exception, were subjected to brutal physical and psychological torture. What stood out about Neil Aggett’s death in 1982, was that he was one of the first persons to die whilst being imprisoned as a trade unionist. By the 1980s, the regime had been forced to concede the right, which they had withdrawn in the 1950s, for black workers to organize themselves in trade unions and for trade unions to enjoy bargaining rights with employers. For someone active on the legal front of trade union organization to die in detention was a damning indictment of the apartheid regime’s oppressive policies. His death therefore is a poignant reminder of the gross human rights violations that occurred in this country only two decades ago. But another way of looking at Neil Aggett, and the way I want to focus on in this lecture today, is to look at his life and what that life choice represented. He was a learner at Kingswood College and had all the advantages and benefits which that bestowed on him. He went on to study at the University of Cape Town and graduated as a medical doctor. He could have chosen to carve out a quiet life for himself in private practice, enjoying the comforts and privileges that were available then to white professionals, as long as they were prepared to turn a blind eye to the plight of their fellow black South Africans. It would not have been inconceivable for someone with that background to have ended up in the position of some of the less honorable members of the medical profession, who refused to speak out when asked to examine Steve Biko in detention, and connived in the cover up of his murder at the hands of the security police. But Neil Aggett did not make either of those choices. He chose instead to devote his energies and his skills to support the struggles of the masses of our people, and particularly the working class. He did not seek any particular position or prestige within the union movement, but was content to work as an organizer and activist among the workers themselves. I am sure that there were many of his contemporaries and peers who thought that this was a bizarre choice, who saw it as a waste of his talent and education and saw his as a life spent way below its potential if measured in the then prevailing norm of the value of a monthly salary cheque. I am sure that this was the judgement of many of his contemporaries and peers. Yet if we look back with the benefit of hindsight, the judgement we are making in participating in this occasion today, is that Neil made brave and correct choices and that his was a life well spent. There are few who would now contend that the society which we have in South Africa today is not infinitely better than the society in which Neil grew up, lived in and died. The democracy and freedoms, which we enjoy in South Africa today are the envy of many peoples around the world. While we have many challenges on the economic and social fronts, the performance of our economy today is much better than it has been at any time in the past 25 to 30 years. Instead of being a pariah on the international stage, our country is respected internationally and plays an active role in many of the international fora. Young men studying at Kingswood, no longer have to look forward with dread to the prospect of two years conscription into an army fighting apartheid’s wars against neighbouring states and involved in oppression in the country itself. There are very few, I am sure, who would say today, that we are not a good deal better off than we were in the 1980’s. What we must never forget is that this better society that we have today did not come into existence easily. It is the product of heroic struggles and huge sacrifice of many individuals who dedicated themselves to the cause of achieving liberation in this country. Neil Aggett was one of those. He was but one of many, many thousands of people who dedicated themselves to the struggle. But he was one of our own. The fact that among many large numbers of black activists, there was also a sprinkling of white activists like Neil Aggett, was a significant statement about the non-racial and democratic content of that struggle. At the same time, it is very important that as institutions like Kingswood College seek to transform themselves in our new society, they are able to identify among their ranks, people who did selflessly committed themselves to the struggle. In making this important identification and this commemoration, one of the important questions that I think we need to ask ourselves today is: What would the Neil Aggett choice entail in the realities of today’s South Africa and today’s world? The Neil Aggett choice I’m arguing, entailed a willingness to rise above the narrow, individual, material self interest, above narrow contemporary peer pressures and prejudices, and to commit oneself to the improvement of one’s society in the interests of ordinary working people and the poor. What then would this choice entail in today’s South Africa and today’s world? Thankfully, in the society created by the sacrifices of many thousands like Neil Aggett taking this choice no longer means risking the possibility of ending up dead in a police cell. But, having said that, I would still contend that we still face many, many challenges that call for the kind of spirit and commitment I am trying to identify in what I am calling the Neil Aggett choice. In the Nelson Mandela lecture delivered a few months ago, President Thabo Mbeki lamented the rise and emerging dominance in our society of narrow capitalistic and market fundamentalist ideas.