Durban - “No young boy should ever wake up in the middle of the night to see his father being paraded nude around the house by the police - but that’s what happened to me when I was 5 years old.”
These were the words of MP Donald Gumede, the son of anti-apartheid activist Archie Gumede, as he recalled growing up with a father who was constantly in and out of prison.
The incident he was referring to happened in 1955. Donald said police stormed his house in Pietermaritzburg in the middle of the night and stripped his father naked, handcuffed him and then ransacked the house.
The son of the ANC’s third president, Josia Gumede, Archie Gumede was a lawyer but dedicated his life to the struggle for the liberation of black people.
The first of a number of legacy projects to honour Gumede, the inaugural Archie Gumede Lecture hosted by the Law Society of South Africa, will be delivered by Trevor Manuel in Durban on Friday.
“For us as a family, these legacy projects mean that the present society still appreciates what my father did,” said Donald.
Gumede had risen through the ranks of the ANC and the United Democratic Front (UDF). He was the first president of the UDF after being elected at the party’s national launch in 1983. He was re-elected into the same position in 1985.
His son said it was unfortunate that his mother, Edith Gumede, died without seeing the life that her husband had spent most of his time fighting for. “My mother died in November 1990 in a car accident a few months after the unbanning of political organisations in the country,” said Donald.
Gumede died of emphysema at the age of 84 in 1998. Donald said Gumede had taught his seven children “to never give up hope, no matter how bad things may seem, and to always fight for justice”.
Gumede posthumously received the Satyagraha Award from the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation and the Order of Luthuli from the South African Presidency for his contribution to the struggle against apartheid, and promotion of peace and democracy. “Bab’ (father) Gumede did not choose to be part of the struggle, he was born into it, but what made him heroic was his dedication and continuously putting his life on the line for South Africans to be freed from oppression,” said the Archie Gumede Foundation spokesman, Bonginkosi Gumede.
Some of the guests expected to attend Friday’s lecture include politicians, government officials, former UN high commissioner for human rights Judge Navi Pillay and KZN Acting Judge President Shyam Gyanda.
Projects planned in honour of the anti-apartheid activist include a 9m-tall statue, turning his Clermont home into a heritage site and a marathon from Clermont, through KwaNdengezi to Hammarsdale.
The projects are spearheaded by the provincial government and the national Department of Arts and Culture.
The Mercury