Kay Moonsamy

The son of an indentured labourer, Kesval Moonsamy was born on 5 July 1926 in Durban, then part of the Union of South Africa's Natal Province. He found employment as a factory hand at the age of 14 to help support his family.[1] He soon became involved in the trade union movement when he was old enough to join and by the age of 19, he was president of the Natal Box, Broom and Brush Workers' Union.[2] Moonsamy had also joined the Communist Party of South Africa when he was 18 and five years later he was elected to the party's Durban committee.[1]

At the same time, Moonsamy was also involved in the Natal Indian Congress. He lined up under the leadership of Monty Naicker of the progressive faction of the organisation and was part of the formation of the "anti-segregation council" to oppose the conservative Kajee-Pather bloc of the organisation which sought to exclusively focus on the issues of Indian South Africans and not be affiliated with the African National Congress. Moonsamy was part of the recruitment drive which recruited 30,000 progressives to the organisation and led to the defeat of the Kajee-Pather bloc.[1] The NIC then joined the Transvaal Indian Congress in organising the 1946 Passive Resistance campaign against residential segregation. Moonsamy and 25,000 other protests marched from Red Square to a piece land at the intersection of Gale Street and Umbilo Road in Durban on 13 June 1946, in defiance of the Asiatic Land Tenure and Indian Representation Act of 1946 which prohibited Indians from buying land from non-Indians except in certain areas. Moonsamy was arrested on his 20th birthday and sentenced to four months at the Durban Central Prison.[3][4]

The National Party of South Africa came to power after their victory in the 1948 general election and began instituting the policy of apartheid. After the passing of the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950 which banned the Communist Party of South Africa, Moonsamy began working for the party's underground structures.[1]

In 1956, Moonsamy and 155 other leaders of the Congress Movement were arrested and charged with treason. The trial which became known as the Treason Trial ended in 1961 with all of the accused being acquitted.[1] Following the 1960 State of Emergency, Moonsamy spent most of his time underground. He helped organise the three-day national protest in May 1961. In 1963, he was served with a banning order and was arrested a month later after breaking it.[1]

Despite Indian South Africans not being allowed to become members of the ANC, the party asked him to go into exile in 1965 which he proceeded to do. He left his wife Kendhri and children behind. He only saw them again in Swaziland in 1980, fifteen years after he went into exile.[1] Having left South Africa on 29 June 1965,[4] he spent three years in Botswana before going to the ANC's headquarters in Lusaka in Zambia where he helped organised the party's 1969 Morogoro Conference in Morogoro, Tanzania at which the party's membership was opened to South Africans of all races.[1]

Moonsamy became the ANC's chief representative representative in 1978 and subsequently went to New Delhi. In 1983, he was elected treasurer-general of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, a position he would hold until 1987.[1] He became the last president of SACTU in 1989.[1] Moonsamy returned to South Africa in 1991, after organising the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College in Tanzania.[1]

Moonsamy was elected as treasurer of the South African Communist Party in 1997.[5] Following Limpho Hani's resignation as a Member of the National Assembly of South Africa in August 1999, Moonsamy was elected to take up her seat in parliament.[6] He went on to serve as a Member of Parliament until 2009.[1]

Moonsamy was awarded the Order of Luthuli in 2015.[7][8]

In June 2016, Moonsamy and fellow activist of the 1946 Passive Resistance, Swaminathan Gounden, gathered at the Red Square in Durban which is now the Nichol Square Parkade. The square was the main place for political meetings during the 1940s and 1950s.[4]

Moonsamy died at the age of 90 on 21 June 2017.[2] His wife had died in 2011.[1] President Jacob Zuma declared a Special Provincial Official Funeral for Moonsamy and instructed that the national flag be flown at half-mast at all of the flag stations in KwaZulu-Natal on the day of his funeral.[9] His funeral was held on 24 June 2017 at the Clare Estate Crematorium.[2]

• Kay Moonsamy at the The Presidency