Dougie Oakes
MOLLY BLackburn’s journey from couch-potato politician to firebrand political activist began in Graaff-Reinet on Saturday, March 11, 1978.
It was the day of PAC president Robert Sobukwe’s funeral – and Blackburn, her sister Judith Chalmers and family friend, Helen Suzman, were in a crowd of more than 5 000 people who had come to pay their last respects.
It was a day in which tension bubbled, and in which Black Consciousness-supporting parts of the crowd were openly hostile to those whom they considered part of the system. This was why Suzman was asked to step down from being a guest speaker, and why Mangosuthu Buthelezi (then a homeland chief) was chased out of the stadium.
Chalmers said: “In no way did we feel threatened. In fact, it was an incredible event, which sparked both of us to get involved in the Struggle in an active way.”
Blackburn, who was born in Port Elizabeth on November 12, 1930, had what could be described as a “normal upbringing” in a well-to-do home. Her father, Buller, was an attorney with a keen interest in politics and the future of the country. He was a member of the United Party (UP) and a close friend of its leader, De Villiers Graaff. “My dad, who was part of the group that formed the Progressive Party, had lots of serious discussions with Graaff about the fact that the UP needed to think seriously about blacks eventually getting the vote,” said Chalmers. “We had a pretty liberal upbringing, really.
“We always helped at election time, working in the Progressive Party’s office and canvassing. But our activities were confined to ‘white’ politics. Molly then got married and went to live in Belgium for about 10 years, being homesick most of that time.”
Blackburn’s entry into a more activist type of politics was slow. Having remarried, having started a thriving real estate business, and with seven children to take care of, she did not appear to have a lot of spare time. But she did not shut the door entirely. After Sobukwe’s funeral, Chalmers joined the Black Sash and Blackburn hinted that she might too, but she strongly believed that the Black Sash needed to reopen its Advice Office.
“She felt there was a huge need for it – and she said that if it were reopened, she would have something active to do,” said Chalmers.
In 1981, Blackburn stood for the Progressive Party in Port Elizabeth’s Walmer constituency as Andrew Savage’s running mate, as the Provincial Council candidate.
“And they won. We all thought it was a great victory. With Di Bishop (now Di Oliver) and other Progressive Party councillors, they formed a wonderfully effective team.”
Oliver added: “I worked in the Black Sash Advice Office in Mowbray. Molly was very impressed with our outreach work to the ‘squatters’ and those living in Crossroads. It was during the cruel raids on people (often from the Eastern Cape) who had come to Cape Town to claim the right to live here that Molly witnessed official brutality towards innocent people. She joined the Black Sash in Port Elizabeth and with Judy Chalmers and other members decided to reopen the Port Elizabeth Advice Office.”
“Molly became one of its staunchest workers.
As testament to its effectiveness, the office had bricks thrown through its window. Later, it was set alight. It was in this time that Molly joined the Black Sash,” said Chalmers.
From this time on, Blackburn’s activism intensified. In 1981, she was part of a group that invited Helen Joseph to speak in New Brighton. All the white people – about 40 in total – who attended Joseph’s address were arrested for being in a black township without a permit, even though Blackburn and Andrew Savage, as public representatives, did not need permits to enter the townships.
Around 1981, Blackburn was asked by Reverend James Haya to help Siphiwo Mthimkulu, the then president of the Congress of SA Students, who was being severely harassed by the security police.
When Mthimkulu was confined to a wheelchair after being struck down by a mystery ailment, it was Blackburn, Oliver and other Black Sash members who brought him to Cape Town to be examined by the well-known neurologist and Black Sash supporter Frances Ames, who delivered the chilling diagnosis that he had been poisoned with thallium.
Mthimkulu recovered slowly and eventually was able to walk again. Then he disappeared and was never seen again. The mystery of his disappearance was finally resolved during the TRC hearings when security police confessed that he and another detainee, Topsy Madaka, had been kidnapped, taken into a rural district of the Eastern Cape, given sleeping tablets, shot in the head and literally “braaied” over an open fire. Their remains were dumped in a nearby river.
Blackburn’s approachability saw her being invited, especially by women, to attend numerous church gatherings and funerals. She also met the political leaders in the townships and, in fact, with the underground ANC.
“Molly’s political life was quite short, from 1981 until her death in 1985,” said Chalmers. “The Progressive Party was not quite sure how to handle Molly and Di, who were ‘out there’, often in the townships, fulfilling a far more activist role than most of the Progressive Party politicians.
“At that time Molly’s and most of the Sash members’ phones were tapped, mail interfered with and tyres slashed. And in the townships houses were raided on a nightly basis, detentions of anyone vaguely suspected of being activists, including children, were the order of the day. Molly’s phone rang day and night asking for help and our Advice Office had queues of literally hundreds every day.
“Then Matthew Goniwe contacted her about some problems in Cradock and they became good friends. He would stay in the Blackburn house when he was in PE for meetings. I used to travel with Molly to various parts of the Eastern Cape when there were incidents of police brutality, and we would interview victims and their families and contact legal help, as did Di and Brian when she could get away from Cape Town,” said Chalmers.
“I think, for her, those four years were filled with hope, really, because she met and interacted with so many men and women of great courage, who trusted her with their lives. She was in a position where she could make a difference, she was totally fearless.”
Blackburn and fellow activist Brian Bishop were killed in a car accident near Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape on December 29, 1985. Chalmers and Bishop’s wife, Di, survived.