Nov 7, 2007 – This photograph of Mr Nelson Mandela has been published many times but it is only now that information about it has become available.
The picture was taken in the early 1960s, in the living room of Mr Khalil and Mrs Rookaya Saloojee’s flat at 175 Main Street, Newlands, Johannesburg. A Koranic text is visible on the wall. At the time, Mr Saloojee’s uncle, Mr Molvi Saloojee, was a resident of Fietas (a multiracial area near the city centre, including the suburbs of Pageview and Vrededorp) and president of the Transvaal Indian Congress.
The Saloojees were known for singing the Hindi freedom song Parna Janda at political rallies in the 1980s.
Mr Azher Saloojee, the couple’s son, who was six or seven years old at the time the photograph was taken, says that meetings of banned ANC members used to be held in the flat. His statement was confirmed in a conversation with Mr Ahmed “Kathy” Kathrada.