ANC SADDENED BY THE DEATH OF MAM' PHYLLIS NAIDOO
The ANC dips its flag in honour of Comrade Phyllis Naidoo who has passed on at the age of 85. She was a veteran of ANC, MK and SACP. Mam' Phyllis was born in Estcourt on the 5th of January 1928.
After she matriculated from Woodlands High School in Pietermaritzburg in 1945, the family moved to Tongaat. She then started to work at the Friends of the Sick Association (FOSA). She was sent to King George V Hospital to train as a TB nurse aid. As a young woman she was heavily drawn into community work and also the political activism of the period.
She was galvanised by the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1956 Treason Trial. When Mam' Phyllis read in the Natal Mercury a report of the arrests of Dorothy Shanley and Errol Shanley, members of the SACP, parents of three young children Nigel, Di and Roz, she decided she had to take an active role in solidarity and support. As a teacher and a student at Natal University (Non-European section) she organised a Human Rights Committee at University and helped to raise funds for the Treason Trialists and their families. She was also involved in attending to the banished persons in Natal with Eleanor Kasrils, Theo Kloppenberg and others.
She joined the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) where she met Nandha (Steve) Naidoo, George Sewpersadh, Dr Randeree and MD Naidoo and became involved in writing speeches for comrades. In 1958, she married MD Naidoo, a committed member of the SACP, and in 1961 she joined the Communist Party. She also began working with Dorothy Nyembe, Florence Mkhize and Moses Kotane. In 1958, she also began working with her husband, MD and Govan Mbeki in aiding people underground. They made deliveries and helped those in danger to get out of the country. She herself took Moses Mabhida and two other comrades to Newcastle when they were making their way out of South Africa. Mam' Phyllis' association with political leaders brought her to the attention of the apartheid authorities and she was banned in March 1966.