Hanef Bhamjee

Last updated

Mohamed Hanef Bhamjee (1 December 1946 – 8 January 2022), known as HanefBhamjee, was a South African–British campaigner and organiser in the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and Secretary of the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement from 1981 to 1994.

Contents

Early life in South Africa

Bhamjee was born on 1 December 1946 in Wolmaransstad in South Africa's former Transvaal Province. [1] His brother, Yusuf Bhamjee, was also an activist and politician. Schooled in Pietermaritzburg, Bhamjee was involved in anti-apartheid youth politics and the Natal Indian Congress. As a high school student, he was recruited to become the youngest member of a Pietermaritzburg-based political study group that also included Harry Gwala and other stalwarts of the African National Congress. [1] He left for the United Kingdom in 1965, aged 18, to avoid persecution. [2]

Life in Britain

Bhamjee came to Wales in 1972, where the Anti-Apartheid Movement was already active in Cardiff, Newport and Swansea. [2] The Wales Anti-apartheid Movement (WAAM) was founded in 1981 and Bhamjee was the Secretary until its dissolution in 1994. [3] He succeeded in growing the movement to a network of 22 branches across Wales. [2] Bhamjee's house in Cardiff acted as the office for the movement in Wales, though he was subjected to attacks, with his car being damaged and Bhamjee himself being beaten up by thugs. [2] The network was able to mobilise demonstrations of several hundred at short notice, to protest against touring South African rugby teams. [4]

The assets of the WAAM were transferred to Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) Wales. Bhamjee became Secretary of ACTSA Wales and the Wales Anti-Racist Alliance. [3]

He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in the 2003 Birthday Honours, for "services to Race Relations, the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement and the charity and voluntary sector". [5] In 2009 Bhamjee returned to South Africa to be presented with a Mahatma Gandhi Award for reconciliation and peace. [2]

In 2013, Bhamjee was commissioned to write a book about the role of Wales in the fight against Apartheid. [4] WAAM: A History of the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement was published in 2016 by Seren Books.

Bhamjee worked as a solicitor in Cardiff. He died on 8 January 2022. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Paton</span> South African author (1903–1988)

Alan Stewart Paton was a South African writer and anti-apartheid activist. His works include the novels Cry, the Beloved Country (1948), Too Late the Phalarope (1953), and the short story The Waste Land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pietermaritzburg</span> Capital city of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Pietermaritzburg is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King Dingane's royal homestead uMgungundlovu. Pietermaritzburg is popularly called Maritzburg in Afrikaans and is often informally abbreviated to PMB. It is a regionally important industrial hub, producing aluminium, timber and dairy products, as well as the main economic hub of uMgungundlovu District Municipality. The public sector is a major employer in the city due to local, district and provincial government offices located here.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Smith (Welsh politician)</span> Welsh Labour Party politician (born 1951)

John William Patrick Smith is a Welsh Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Vale of Glamorgan from the 1989 by-election to 1992 and from 1997 to the 2010 general elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fatima Meer</span> South African writer and activist (1928–2010)

Fatima Meer was a South African writer, academic, screenwriter, and prominent anti-apartheid activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Fordyce</span> South African runner

Bruce Noel Stevenson Fordyce is a South African marathon and ultramarathon athlete who was also active in opposing Apartheid. He is best known for having won the South African Comrades Marathon a record nine times, of which eight wins were consecutive. He also won the London to Brighton Ultramarathon three years in a row. He is the former world record holder over 50 miles and the former world record holder over 100 km.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Apartheid Movement</span> 1959–1994 British anti-apartheid organisation

The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-white population who were oppressed by the policies of apartheid. The AAM changed its name to ACTSA: Action for Southern Africa in 1994, when South Africa achieved majority rule through free and fair elections, in which all races could vote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natal Indian Congress</span> Civil rights organisation for Indians in South Africa (1894–1994)

The Natal Indian Congress (NIC) was a political organisation established in 1894 to fight discrimination against Indians in the Natal Colony, and later the Natal Province, of South Africa. Founded by Mahatma Gandhi, it later served an important role in opposing apartheid. It was the oldest affiliate of the South African Indian Congress.

Gangathura Mohambry "Monty" Naicker was a South African anti-apartheid activist. He is best known for his tenure as president of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) between 1945 and 1963. He also served as president of the South African Indian Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Goldberg</span> South African anti-apartheid activist (1933–2020)

Denis Theodore Goldberg was a South African social campaigner who was active in the struggle against apartheid. He was accused No. 3 in the Rivonia Trial, alongside the better-known Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, where he was also the youngest of the defendants. He was imprisoned for 22 years, along with other key members of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. After his release in 1985 he continued to campaign against apartheid from his base in London with his family, until the apartheid system was fully abolished with the 1994 election. He returned to South Africa in 2002 and founded the non-profit Denis Goldberg Legacy Foundation Trust in 2015. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in July 2017, and died in Cape Town on 29 April 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blade Nzimande</span> South African politician

Bonginkosi Emmanuel "Blade" Nzimande is a South African politician, sociologist, and former anti-apartheid activist who is currently serving as Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation. A cabinet minister since 2009, Nzimande was the General Secretary of the South African Communist Party from 1998 to 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mick Antoniw</span> Welsh politician (born 1954)

Mick Antoniw is a Welsh Labour and Co-operative politician, who was Counsel General for Wales from 2021 to 2024, having previously served in the position from 2016 to 2017. He previously served as Minister for the Constitution from 2021 to 2024. He has been the Member of the Senedd (MS) for Pontypridd since 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enuga Sreenivasulu Reddy</span> Diplomat and anti-apartheid activist (1924–2020)

Enuga Sreenivasulu Reddy, also known as E. S. Reddy, was an Indian-born diplomat at the United Nations who led the anti-apartheid efforts at the UN's Special Committee Against Apartheid and its Centre Against Apartheid. He also served as director of the UN Trust Fund for South Africa and the Educational and Training Programme for Southern Africa. During his time in these roles, he campaigned for economic boycott of the then Government of South Africa, advancing anti-apartheid actions including a combination of economic and social measures. He also lobbied for the release of the imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ismail Ahmed Cachalia</span> South African politician

Ismail Ahmed Cachalia (1908-2003), popularly known as Moulvi, was a South African political activist and a leader of Transvaal Indian Congress and the African National Congress. He was one of the leaders of the Indian Passive Resistance Campaign of 1946 and the Defiance Campaign in 1952. The Government of India awarded the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1977.

Ethel de Keyser OBE OLG was a South African anti-apartheid activist based in London, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International sanctions during apartheid</span>

As a response to South Africa's apartheid policies, the international community adopted economic sanctions as a form of condemnation and pressure. Jamaica led the movement by being the first country to ban goods from apartheid South Africa in 1959.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ebrahim Ebrahim</span> South African anti-apartheid activist (1937–2021)

Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim OLG was a South African anti-apartheid activist of Indian origin who was a member of the African National Congress's armed wing uMkhonto we Sizwe. He was tried in the Pietermaritzburg sabotage trials of 1963 and was sentenced to a 15-year imprisonment at the Robben Island Maximum Security Prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial</span> 1985–1986 trial of anti-apartheid activists

The Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial was heard in the Supreme Court of South Africa from 21 October 1985 to 23 June 1986. In the largest political trial since the Rivonia Trial, the apartheid state pursued charges of high treason against 16 leaders of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and four affiliated organisations. State v Ramgobin and Others was generally regarded as a failure in both legal and political terms: the charges against 12 defendants were dropped in December 1985 and the remaining four were freed in June 1986, while the South African state received international criticism for having instituted the charges in the first place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ismail Mohamed (mathematician)</span> South African activist and mathematician (1930–2013)

Ismail Jacobus Mohamed was a South African activist and mathematician. He represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly from 1994 to 2009.

Yusuf Suleman Bhamjee is a South African politician, academic, and former anti-apartheid activist. He was the Mayor of uMgungundlovu District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal from 2008 to 2016. Before that, he represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature and National Assembly between 1994 and 2008.

Devdas Paul Davis was a South African anti-apartheid activist. A member of the United Democratic Front and Natal Indian Congress, he was one of the Durban Six in 1984 and a defendant in the Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial in 1985.

References

  1. 1 2 "A giant of the anti-apartheid movement has fallen". The Mail & Guardian. 14 January 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Martin Shipton (9 July 2009). "Hanef Bhamjee to receive Gandhi award". Wales Online . Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  3. 1 2 "Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement Papers". National Library of Wales . Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  4. 1 2 Martin Shipton (2 July 2013). "Wales' role in ending apartheid to be recorded in new book". Wales Online. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  5. "Public services and voluntary sector honours: OBE". The Guardian . London. 14 June 2003. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  6. "Hanef Bhamjee: Tributes as anti-apartheid campaigner dies". BBC News . 9 January 2022. Retrieved 10 January 2022.