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Tributes pour for anti-apartheid activist Swaminathan Gounden

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Tributes are pouring in for anti-apartheid activist Swaminathan Gounden who passed away during the early hours on Tuesday morning.

Gounden spent most of his life silently serving the liberation movement before succumbing to his death at over 90-years of age. He passed away at a Durban hospital after being unwell for a few weeks.

Gounden was one of the last surviving attendees of the historic Kliptown conference in 1955 where the Freedom Charter was adopted. He was conferred with the national Order of Luthuli by President Ramaphosa and was a member of the African National Congress, South African Communist Party is a communist part, NIC and South African Congress of Trade Unions.

Speaking to the SABC in 2018, Gounden explained his role in the drafting of the constitution, “we went into the areas, the Indian areas and so on and asked them what they would like to be in the constitution of a democratic organisation. They said no, we want housing and that type of thing. What we did, we put that into writing. Our chaps will come in cars, park their car on the other roads and take a slow walk and come here because they will have secret meetings.”

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