Graça Machel and Billy Nair, left, along with Madiba, Elsie Nair, seated, Maggie Govender and Ahmed Kathrada pose for a photo at the Trialist reunion in March this year
Oct 23, 2008 – Veteran anti-apartheid activist and former political prisoner, Billy Nair, passed away on Thursday, October 23, at St Augustine’s Hospital in Durban. He was 78 years old.
Incarcerated for 20 years on Robben Island for sabotage as an Umkhonto weSizwe operative, Nair was held in the same section of the prison as Nelson Mandela and the other Rivonia Trialists. During his detention before his trial, he was tortured. After his release from prison in 1984 he joined the United Democratic Front and became a leading activist in the organisation.
He was one of the members of the clandestine Operation Vula which was set up in South Africa in case of a change of heart by the apartheid regime, which had legalised the ANC and released Mr Mandela and some other political prisoners. Nair was arrested in July 1990 with nine others, for his role in the operation.
He served as an ANC Member of Parliament from 1994 to 1999 after South Africa’s first democratic elections.
As a former accused in the infamous 1956 Treason Trial he joined a reunion on March 14 with a group of others who had been accused, in addition to Mr Mandela. He had been arrested in the mass raids of December 5, 1956, that characterised the clampdown on a range of anti-apartheid activists.
Released on bail on December 21 he joined 155 others on trial and finally had the charges against him dropped on April 20, 1959. At the end of the trial on March 29, 1961, all of the accused had been acquitted.
Nair’s youth was spent in the Communist Party of South Africa, the South African Congress of Trade Unions (South Africa’s first non-racial trade union) and the Natal Indian Congress.
Nair leaves behind his wife, Elsie, a daughter and siblings.
Letter from Nelson Mandela to Billy Nair in hospital:
“20 October 2008
Dear Billy,
We have been distressed to hear of your latest health setback and confinement to a hospital bed. Our thoughts are with you and your family.
We have fond memories of your two visits to us earlier this year.
We know that your comrades in Durban will give you outstanding support, something you richly deserve. I am sure there are many people in South Africa and around the world who join me in wishing you comfort and strength.
Kind regards,
N R Mandela”