Shane Moran - Alternation Journal

Alex lo C;l~lrziz k Po1itic.c. nnil Aesthetics
Gurna was 'I~sted under the Suppress~on of Commun~s~n Act as a known commutlist'
(Abrahams 1985.7)
La Guma contrnued be~ng ~nvolved In pol~t~cs, however, even after the
banning of the Party, partic~patlng Inore in local and iiatronalist ca~npaigns rather than
work~ng class act~vlties.When a Coloured People's Convention was called in 1953 and
the South African Coloured People's Organisation wac fonned, La Guma was one of
the founder members. The South African Coloured People's Organisation (SACPO), a
national coloured organisation, was formed to mobilise andunite all Coloureds to resist
the Separate Representat~on of Voters Bill of 1951, which was aimed at removing the
Coloureds from the coinmoll voters roll, and to align itself with the ANC's campaign
against apartheid and for equal rights for all South Africans (see Lewis 1987:269). La
Gutna became a member ofthe executive of SACPO in 1954 while he was still working
at Caltex, but, after some time, he resigned from this company to become a full-time
organiser for SACPO. In November the same year, La Gulna married Blanche Herman,
who was to share his political and cultural activities. In 1955 La Guma became
chairman of SACPO and was instnunental in organising SACPO for the historical
Congress of the People held in Kliptown in June 1955. While La Gurna and several
other SACPO delegates were on their way to Kliptown, they were arrested in Beaufort
West and released without being charged only after the conference had ended. SACPO
members, nevertheless, vowed to carry the Freedom Charter to every comer of the land
in their capacity as members of the congress Alliance, which adopted the Charter in
1955. After its 1959 December conference the South African Coloured People's
Organisation changed its name to the South African Coloured People's Congress (or
CPC) to fall in line with the Congress Movement under the auspices of the African
National Congress.
journalism, detention and exile
The period from 1955 to 1962 was a significant phase in both La Guma's political
career and his writing career. Firstly, in 1955 La Gurna was asked to join the staff ofNew
Age, a newspaper that served as the mouthpiece for the ANC and the SACP, at its
headquarters in Cape Town". It was afterjoining the staff of this progressive newspaper
that La Guma 'really started to write seriously' (La Gurna 1991: 19). Secondly, as
chairman of the South African Coloured People's Organisation, La Guma played a
leading role in challenging the govemrnent's 1955 Race Classification Bill and the
South Afrlcan Act Amendment Bill which effectively removed Coloureds from the
colnluon voters roll. He was also in the forefront in the struggle against the decision of
"
Injoinii~g Lliis pi-ogressive ncwspapcr as a I-epor-ter, Ida Gums was oncc again lhlloiving the
path ofiiis I'aiiicr-wllo, iir tllc 1930s. was an cditor ofllbel-otoi.. a monthlyjo~~rnal of tlieNatioria1
I,ihcraiiori I,eague in \vliicii Alex la G~inia liirnsclfassisted as a,juvcirile ar-list.
140
lrultrrli ~Mkhizc~
Cape 'lhwn City Council in April and May 1956 when the municipality decided to
ate buses (sce Abralialns 1985:8). In December 1956 La Ciu~na and other leaders
i'de were arrested and charged wit11 treason. Since the history of the I956
rial is well documented, it suffices to point out here that the central argument
te against the aectised revolved around suspicions of the existence of a
spiracy to overthrow the existing government by force as well as the allegation that
the Freedom Charter was a comtnunist inspired document, and that the trial dragged on
until 1961 when, as aresult of insufficient evidence, the accused were acquitted.
As one of the accused in the Treason Trial, La Guina wrote extensive reports
for New Age. On May 2, 1957 La Gurna was assigned a regular colurnn entitled 'Up my
Iley' by New Age (see Abrahams 1985: 12). It was La Gurna's work with New Age,
cifically his new column, through which he established hiinself as a chronicler of
ration, that paved the way for his literary career. As Andre Odendaal and Roger
ndicate in a recently published collection of I,a Guma's articles and reports,
of the themes in his short stories and novels are first encountered and developed
early newspaper articles' (La Gurna 1993:xviii). It was largely as a result of his
itical work and perllaps partly because of his biting jou~nalisln that people who
led themselves 'the Patriots' made an attempt on his life on May 15, 1958.
cording to Blanche La Guma's account of the incident:
When the matter was reported. the police showed no interest. Only when he
received an unsigned note reading 'Sorry we missed you, will call
again-'The Patriots'-did they come to the house to inspect the Ilole
made by the bullet into the wall. That was two days after the event (La
Guma 199 1 : 10).
mediately after the Sharpeville incident of March 1960 the South African
ernment declared a State of Emergency and arrested many political activists all over
country. La Guma was one of those detained and he spent five months firstly in
eland Street prison and then at a special prison in Worcester in the Cape before he
In the multi-racial, multi-national community of political detainees lay the
guarantee of a future. free South Africa ... we have come out of the jails
stronger. inore determined than before (LaGuina 1993: 1470.
11 1961 whenNelsoi~ Mandela, the then leader of the African National Congress, called
national general strike in protest against South Africa becoming a white republic, La
a went underground and helped organise the Coloured people in Cape Town to
around Mandela's call. He was detained for ten days for his involve~nent in the
campaign. Following his release in June 196 1, in August the government imposed a
five year banning order on La Gurna under the Suppression of Communism Act. In
1962 La Gurna was, accorditig to his wife, 'the first person to be placed under twentyfour
hour house arrest' (La Gu~na 199 1: 13). This restriction order prohibited him froin
attending public gatherings and effectively forced him to resign from New Age. In