A beer with Gavin Evans (Part 7 – The ECC, Brett Myrdal)

The battle against conscription to the SADF hots up, Gavin himself is sent to Johannesburg to campaign against conscription to the SADF there. This was because the ANC thought the pamphlet and other incidents in Cape Town (part 6) might expose him.

Gavin Evans & Janet CherryGavin Evans and Janet Cherry were in the same underground ANC unit
Photo Gavin Evans.

This video includes the lead up to the ECC launch with the help of organizations like Black Sash. It also includes the story of Brett Myrdal’s conscription.

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Related deployments:

  1. A beer with Gavin Evans
  2. A beer with Gavin Evans (part 8 Carl Niehaus & assault)
  3. A beer with Gavin Evans (part 9 – Spies and lies)
  4. A beer with Gavin Evans (part 6 – Hani, Mbeki – close calls)
  5. A beer with Gavin Evans (part 1 – politicisation)
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2 Responses

  1. Mike says:
    December 14, 2009 at 10:55 am

    Very interesting comment there right at the end. Obviously he’s not saying Apartheid was OK, but it was a (limited) ‘parliamentary democracy’. I remember a post you once wrote, long ago, about an English (as in UK) friend who played golf at Sun City and was disgusted by the racism in a sign barring caddies from retrieving balls in a water hazard because it was infested with crocodiles.

    You made the point that it was probably not a case of stopping the white golfers from sending their black caddies into harms way, but more a case of paternalism, i.e. protecting the black caddies from hurting themselves. I.e., still racism, but a different kind – a paternalistic kind. That’s if I remember your point correctly?

    I think it’s important to remember Apartheid for what it was and what lay behind it. One can engage the topic infinitely better if sticking to what Apartheid actually was, or by at least endeavouring to do so.

  2. Mike says:
    December 14, 2009 at 10:58 am

    I should perhaps add that the above does not attempt to summarise Apartheid in some simplistic manner, i.e. that it was purely paternalistic. It is rather an attempt to look at an aspect of Apartheid and the racism that underpinned it :-)

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