Grandchildren of Mahatma’s aide recount stories of torture

JOHANNESBURG, July 28: Five grandchildren of Mahatma Gandhi’s right-hand man in South Africa, Thumbie Naidoo, told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) about the torture, arrest and humiliation that they underwent during the apartheid rule.

The Naidoo family members told the TRC that they were prevented from talking to each other, subjected to brutal torture and imprisonment and forcibly removed from their Johannesburg home by the apartheid security police under the Group Areas Act, segregating people on the basis of colour.

The members have been identified as Shanti Tweedy Naidoo, a researcher for the ruling African National Congress, Indres Naidoo, a member of the Gauteng Provincial Parliament, Murthi Naidoo, a clothing factory worker, Ramnie Dinat, a worker for the Human Rights Commission and Prema Naidoo, chairman of the southern local council of Johannesburg. The children of freedom fighters Naran and Manormani Naidoo gave the evidence before the TRC last week.