[5] Narainsamy Reddy was active in the workers' rights movement and a member of the Natal Indian Congress, a party started by Mahatma Gandhi.
[7] He served on the councils of the University of Durban-Westville and ML Sultan Technikon, and was able to influence large industrial companies to take on apprentices and technicians from these institutions, increasing Indian economic participation.
[1] He also used his influence to convince the authorities to accept people of colour for training as Chartered accountants and telecommunications technicians.
[3] In 1984, in the lead-up to the 1984 South African general election, which determined the makeup of the first House of Delegates, Reddy co-founded the political party Solidarity, becoming its first leader.
[6] The election of 1984 was marked by boycotts, as many Coloured and Indian South Africans saw the tricameral system as a means to entrench Apartheid.
[8] The party campaigned on a platform of repealing discriminatory legislation in the economic field[3]p.59 and "peaceful change towards a just and democratic society with safeguards for minorities".
[12] There were suggestions at the time that Solidarity was somehow initiated by the government, as Prime Minister P. W. Botha preferred Dr. Reddy to the leadership of the National People's Party,[3]p.59 a claim which was made more credible by the fact that some of the party leaders, including Reddy, had been members of government institutions, for example the President's Council.
Instead, the parties agreed on a coalition, with two Solidarity members (JN Reddy and Ismail Kathrada) appointed to the Minister's Council.
[14] The coalition only lasted a few months, however, and dissolved, partly due to differences between the parties,[14] but also because the Speaker of the House ruled that Solidarity could not be the official opposition while its leader served on the Council.