Mewa Ramgobin
In his later years, he established the Centre for Learning of Ubuntu, chaired the Phoenix Settlement Trust, and continued his sporadic writing career.
Later the same year, Ramgobin joined Nokukhanya Luthuli and others in participating in a five-day fast, in the Gandhian tradition, in protest of the Sharpeville massacre and subsequent banning of anti-apartheid organisations by the state.
[1][2] Over the next decade, Ramgobin and his wife were central figures in the Phoenix Settlement, which they attempted to establish as a "liberated space" for political and cultural collaboration across ideological and racial lines.
[1] In 1965, while Ramgobin was the secretary of a committee planning celebrations of Gandhi's centenary, he was served with his first banning order, which confined him to house arrest.
[1] The clemency campaign advocated for the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC) and for the release of Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners, and it resulted in another banning order, which confined Ramgobin to house arrest between September 1971 and February 1973.
[5] At a community meeting at Durban's Bolton Hall on 25 June 1971, attendees had agreed to revive the congress and had established an ad hoc committee, chaired by Ramgobin, to carry out the task.
[6] The official relaunch took place on 2 October, Gandhi's birthday, but Ramgobin had been banned a fortnight earlier and did not assume his presumptive leadership role.
[7] Ramgobin was nonetheless a central figure in the leadership of the congress, though he remained restricted by police even after his house arrest was lifted in February 1973.
[1][3] The Natal Indian Congress affiliated to the UDF and became a major force in its largely successful campaign to boycott the 1984 general election and the new Tricameral Parliament.
[9] Upon their release, Ramgobin and five others – among them UDF co-president Archie Gumede – went into hiding to evade arrest under the new detention orders freshly signed by le Grange.
Ramgobin, four other members of the Durban Six, and 11 other UDF activists were together accused of having formed a "revolutionary alliance" with illegal political organisations – chiefly the ANC – for the purpose of inciting revolt to overthrow the government.
[23] Kush was shot dead at his home in Verulam in January 1993 in an apparent robbery,[24] although his murder was also linked to ongoing political violence in the area.
