[Obituary in Sechaba, February 1971]

South Africa has lost yet another Congress stalwart. Towards the end of last year we received the sad news that Debi Singh, former Secretary of the Natal Indian Congress, had died after a long illness.

Since the departure of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa the N.I.C. which was formed by the Mahatma in 1896 had progressively deteriorated from a mass movement of the Indian community into an organisation representing, in the main, the commercial classes. Debi as he was popularly known by all his many friends and colleagues, entered the political arena towards the end of the last world war, at a time when the Indian youth were up in arms against this staid and conservative leadership of the premier Indian political organisation, the Natal Indian Congress (N.I.C.). The following year (1946) when Congress launched a campaign of defiance against the proposed Land Tenure Act, the forerunner of the present infamous Group Areas Act whereby the government has the authority to move settled communities into separate watertight ghettos, Debi was appointed Secretary of the Passive Resistance Council of the N.I.C., a special committee set up to organise and lead the defiance. In the course of the struggle that followed over 2,500 men and women were imprisoned, including Debi Singh.

He was again imprisoned together with over 8,000 people for participating in the Defiance of Unjust Laws campaign organised jointly by the African National Congress and the South African Indian Congress in 1952.

In 1956, when 156 leaders of the Congress movement were arrested and charged with High Treason, Debi was once again among the accused and, when in 1960 following the general strike called by Nelson Mandela in protest against the Sharpeville massacre, the Government declared a State of Emergency, Debi Singh was among the thousands throughout the country who were imprisoned for six months without trial.

At the time of his death he was under severe bans, restricting his movement to his home town, Durban, and denying him the right to attend any gatherings, including social gatherings of more than two persons.

Sechaba dips its banner in memory of this gallant freedom fighter.

M. P.