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Billy Nair - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Page 1 of 5 Billy Nair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 5 Billy Nair From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Billy Nair (27 November 1929-23 October 2008) Billy Nair was a South African politician, a member of the National Assembly , an anti-apartheid activist and Born 27 November 1929 a political prisoner in Robben Island. Durban, Natal, Union of South Africa Nair is best known for being one of the famous Rivonia Trialists as well as a long-serving Died 23 October 2008 political prisoner on Robben Island along with Durban, Natal, Republic of South Nelson Mandela in the 'B' Block for political Africa prisoners. His Prison card is the copy used in the post-reconciliation prison tours to illustrate the Political African National Congress conditions of the prisoners of the time. He was party elected to the African National Congress (ANC) executive committee in 1991 and was a South African Apartheid in South Africa member of parliament for two terms prior to his retirement in 2004. Events and Projects Sharpeville Massacre Contents Soweto uprising · Treason Trial Rivonia Trial · Mahlabatini Declaration Church Street bombing · CODESA 1 Early life St James Church massacre 2 Early Political Activism Cape Town peace march · Purple Rain 3 Arrest and Imprisonment Organisations 4 Activities After Release 5 Honours and Awards ANC · IFP · AWB · Black Sash · CCB 6 Death Conservative Party · ECC · PP · RP 7 See also PFP · HNP · MK · PAC · SACP · UDF 8 References Broederbond · National Party COSATU · SADF · SAP People Early life P. W. Botha · Oupa Gqozo · D. F. Malan Nair was born in Sydenham, Durban in the then province of Nelson Mandela · Desmond Tutu Natal , to Indian immigrant parents on 27 November 1929. F. W. de Klerk · Walter Sisulu Helen Suzman · Harry Schwarz His parents were Pravathy and Krishnan Nair who belonged Andries Treurnicht · H. F. Verwoerd to Kerala, India. He was one of five children; his siblings Oliver Tambo · B. J. Vorster were Joan, Angela, Jay and Shad. His youngest brother died Kaiser Matanzima · Jimmy Kruger of typhoid in 1942. His father was an illiterate ship cargo Steve Biko · Mahatma Gandhi man and mother supplemented the income by owning a Joe Slovo · Trevor Huddleston vegetable stall in the market. [1] Places He attended school in Essendene Primary School in Bantustan · District Six · Robben Island Sydenham and Natal Technikon or M.L. Sultan Technical Sophiatown · South-West Africa College (see Durban University of Technology), Durban at Soweto · Sun City · Vlakplaas night and completed his matriculation in 1946 and diploma Other aspects in accounting in 1949. During his school year, he also Afrikaner nationalism worked part-time as a shop assistant from 1946 - 48 for a Apartheid laws · Freedom Charter timber merchant of Indian origin and as a bookkeeper for an Sullivan Principles · Kairos Document accounting firm. Disinvestment campaign South African Police http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Nair 24/01/2010 Billy Nair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2 of 5 Early Political Activism During his education days, he was politicized as a participant in the students union. Like many of his fellow leaders in the future, the "Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act", also known as the "Ghetto Act" galvanized his political beliefs. In 1949, he became a member of the Indian Youth Congress and was elected as its secretary in 1950. He started attending Natal Indian Congress (NIC) meetings becoming a member of its executive in 1950. [2]. Billy Nair continued his string of jobs and matriculation. After the National Party government came to power in 1948, the position of the authorities towards the protesters became very hostile. After six months stint as a dairy worker at Clover (see Clover (dairy) Dairy earning 24 pounds a month, he was fired in 1950 as a result of his trade union activities. [2][3] As he explained in an interview in 1984 about this period, "We had to politicize workers. A means to establish a link between political struggle and the struggle for higher wages had to be found". [4] He continued his trade union activities, eventually becoming the full time secretary of the Dairy Worker's Union in 1951. He was banned from political activities as part of the ban imposed in Natal of all that had served as secretaries of 16 trade unions under the Suppression of Communism Act. Nair came under the influence of Dr. G. M. "Monty" Naicker, president of the Natal Indian Congress. In the resistance again the Ghetto act, no fewer than 2000 prisoners were arrested. [5] Nair was among the first group of resisters who were arrested at the Berea station with 21 other fellow- protesters for entering a “Europeans only” waiting room. He was imprisoned for one month. In 1953 Nair joined the secretly reconstituted South African Communist party and was a leading member of South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) when it was formed in 1955 and served on its national executive committee. [6]. Nair was among the 150 activists arrested with Mandela on 5 December 1956 and charged with treason. The marathon Treason Trial of 1956–1961 followed. Two months into the trial, the initial indictment was dropped, and immediately a new indictment was issued against 30 people, all ANC members. He was acquitted of all charges. [7]. Speaking of the incident, Nair later remarked, "The State wanted to actually bottle us up, thinking that the struggle will die out..." [8] Arrest and Imprisonment After the banning of ANC in 1960, Nair became a member of the underground organization Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) which was led by Mandela. Nair went underground for two months before being arrested and detained for 3 months. He was banned f0r 2 years bwhich was subsequently extended to 5 years in 1961. [6] Between 1961 and 1963, he participated in the armed struggle as part of MK and was involved in the bombing of Indian Affairs Department. [9] On 6 July 1963, Nair was arrested and charged with sabotage and attempting to overthrow the government by violent means and sentenced for 20 years in Robben island along with Nelson Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Andrew Mlangeni, Elias Motsoaledi, Raymond Mhlaba and Dennis Goldberg. Billy Nair, as Prisoner 69/64 (the 69th prisoner of 1964) served in the same block as Mandela and Kathrada. Billy Nair was assaulted multiple times in prison quite seriously and he joined multiple efforts including a five day hunger strike to bring about reforms at the prison. In this, he partially succeeded. He was punished severely for his efforts by isolation and removal to the common block. He was also denied food and educational privileges for various periods of time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Nair 24/01/2010 Billy Nair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 3 of 5 There was controversy on which groups were instrumental in making the changes in Robben island, including the provision of beds of prisoners, permission to study and improved meals with various groups claiming credit. Upon release, he remarked on this, "when I came out of prison in 1984 I actually publicly said that these Coopers, the AZAPOS, the Strini Moodleys and the whole shoot of them actually came into a five star hotel. We changed the conditions so much that they were living in milk and honey virtually." [1] "B" Prison Block, Robben Island where Nair was housed Whilst in prison, Nair was an active participant of the "University" which was informal education system run by prisoners; [10] he also obtained study privileges in time and completed B.A. (in English), and B.COM degrees through the University of South Africa. Even though he completed most of the required classes toward a B.PROC degree, he had to abandon it after several detentions. Sonny Venkatratnam, a fellow prisoner smuggled a copy of Shakespeare into the prison in which all the leading prisoners marked their favorite passages; this copy was later called the Robben Island Bible. Billy Nair chose Caliban's lines from The Tempest: 'This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother'. He was released on 27 February 1984 from prison. Thereafter he joined the United Democratic Front (UDF) office and participated in the anti-election campaign of 1984. The UDF was an umbrella organization that brought together hundreds of organizations to protest against the Nationalist governments policies and the new Billy Nair's Prison constitution. [11] He was again detained in August, just before the Identification Card elections for the House of Delegates under section 29 of the internal Security Act. Upon his release Nair went into hiding. He and 5 other UDF leaders Archie Gumede, Mewa Ramgobin, Paul David, George Sewpershad and MJ Naidoo – sought refuge in the British Consulate until 12 December. In 1990, after De Klerk lifted the State of Emergency in July, Nair was re-arrested along with 40 members of ANC accusing them as conspirators in Operation Vula to overthrow the government. [12] Activities After Release After the unbanning of the ANC in February 1990, Nair served on the interim leadership committees of both the ANC and the South African Communist Party. He was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee in July 1991. In the first all-inclusive democratic South African elections in 1994, Nair was elected as a member of parliament for the ANC; he was placed 39 in the list of 400 candidates proposed by the ANC. [13] He served two terms as an MP with distinction until 2004. He was a member of the following Parliamentary Committees: Joint Standing Committee Finance, Constitutional Comm. Theme 3, Constitutional Comm. Sub Theme 2 & Theme 6 and Joint Standing Committee Public Accounts.
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