Ganief Hendricks
THE mother of the Struggle in Cape Town and the mother of the Islamic Movement in South Africa.
This was how two activists – Anwah Nagia, chairman of the District 6 Trust, and Yusuf Mohamedy, of the Muslim Youth Movement – described Hadjie Ghairoonesa Hendricks when they learnt of her passing.
Achmat Cassiem, who was imprisoned on Robben Island and who made the duah (prayer) at the mosque, revealed that the deceased’s code name was “Mrs Shaikh” in the early days of the resistance movement in District 6 during the 1960s.
Hendricks died peacefully in her sleep at her son’s residence in Pinelands on August 28, shortly before Friday prayers. She was 88 years old.
Judge Siraj Desai paid his respects during the night vigil as did the New Unity Movement, Pagad and PAC stalwarts.
Hendricks was a founding member of the first New Unity Movement branch in Cape Town and was involved in the formation of most of the civic and Struggle movements in District 6.
Hendricks led the first march of affected District 6 residents and led the “Hands off” District Movement formed by Judge Desai.
While she was one of the first to apply for restitution to District 6, she moved her name down the list several times “as other people needed a place to stay more than me”.
She owned a grocery store and a drapery store in the Draai Docks in District 6. The drapery store was a front for a safe house mostly for women visiting their husbands on Robben Island.
Her son, former councillor Ganief Hendricks, said his mother always spoke of returning to District 6, but wanted to move in only with the last batch of returning residents.
Similar to many Palestinians who lost their homes after the independence of Israel in 1948, she guarded her house keys for decades waiting for the day she would return to live in District 6.
Hendricks was ready to travel to Flagstaff in Transkei to testify in favour of Dr Archie Mafeje in 1963 at his trial for addressing an illegal gathering, but turned back when his family agreed to pay a fine.
She protested when Sir Richard Luyt cancelled his appointment as a lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town and she later advised Mafeje not to accept an honorary degree after it was offered to him during his lifetime.
His family later accepted the degree after his death. She visited him days before he died and they agreed to make peace with UCT. Archie’s wife phoned from Egypt to tell the Hendricks family “Mrs Shaikh” was Archie’s real mother. She chased away special branch operatives when they came to arrest Judge Fikile Bam at her home.
She also comforted him when UCT banned him from using the university pool while he was a student and phoned the university to complain about his treatment and that of Philip Skosana, who led the 1960 Langa March. Both were regular visitors at her District 6 home.
Days later, Bam was arrested and jailed on Robben Island. At the instruction of her husband, she sent her kids with a warm plate of food for Mafeje and Bam while they were awaiting trial.
She also washed their white shirts so “that they could look like leaders” when they came before the magistrate.
She even bribed the warders with food to treat detainees well and packed a hamper for warders taking awaiting-trial prisoners by train to the courts in the Transkei.
They in turn brought her letters from these prisoners with sensitive information which they hid in their shoes.
She burnt Mafeje’s letters when he was arrested. One letter came from the local chiefs in the Transkei expressing their support for the armed struggle which he brought back from one of his meetings in Flagstaff.
Hendricks led the protest against the Coloured Representative Council for using land bordering District 6 on De Waal Drive to build houses for their ministers and stood firm on the picket line against the army sent to disperse them.
For Dullah Omar, this was one of the turning points of the resistance and he threatened to bring a magistrate to the playing fields where the sporting protest was held. Hendricks insisted that the sports events be completed and awarded trophies to the winners.
She was also the head of the Women’s League of Shura formed by the Muslim Judicial Council in 1968 to establish the Muslim Cape Parliament. She was also a madressa teacher, following the example of her brothers who were both sheikhs and world famous reciters of the Quran.
Her sister, Aysha Booley, was the most senior madressa teacher in Cape Town before she left to get married in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Her father-in-law was a secretary of the Natal Indian Congress. On the ANC’s 100th anniversary, a statuette was made of Ally as one of its early eleders.
The struggle knows no religion for her, said her son, who accompanied her in all her activities since the age of 9. She edited his autobiography I was a child in District 6 and completed the task months before she passed away.
Ganief, in an aside, stated that although it is his autobiography, the book is all about her.
“As I realised she was ageing fast, I printed a hardcover digital copy which she read and further edited. After hearing the many tributes that followed her death, I have to further edit the book.”