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SASCO Rick Turner Week

 
Dr Rick Turner, A Visionary...


SASCO has organised a weeklong programme aimed at commemorating Dr. Rick Turner. This takes place between the 6th April and 12 April 2002. The programme will be launched on Saturday 6th April 2001 in a Rick Turner Commemoration Dinner that will be held at the Rick Turner Student Union. Professor Fatima Meer, Miss Jann Turner, Nkosinathi Biko and Claude Qavane are going to be the guest speakers on Saturday. Dr A Desai will present a topic on Monday at the Library foyer.
We will have a presentation from the University member on Tuesday.
There will be Cultural Evining on Wednesday at the Howard College Theatre where poems and music on human right are going to be presented.
The week will be concluded by a Rick Turner Memorial Lecture presented by Dr Blade Nzimande on Thursday at the venue to be confirmed.


Who is this Rick Turner?
Richard Albert David Turner, the man whom Minister of Police, Kruger once called “the most dangerous man in South Africa?/font> (Greaves, 1993) was born in Cape Town on 25 September 1941. He was educated at St George’s School and matriculated in 1958. He initially studied engineering at the University of Cape Town in 1959, but changed to philosophy in 1960, and achieved a BA (Hons.) in Philosophy in 1963. He was very much affected by the tragedy of Sharpeville, the curtailment of the Black mass movement and simultaneously the demonstration of the ineffectuality of white opposition groups. In 1964 he became involved in the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). In the same year he married Barbara Hubbard. He went on to the University of the Sorbonne, Paris, where in 1966 he was awarded a PhD (magna cum laude) on the political philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre.

He taught as a student demonstrator in Political Philosophy at the University of Cape Town. After returning from Paris with his wife and young family of two daughters, he farmed for a while in the Stellenbosch district and then lectured at Stellenbosch and Rhodes Universities before accepting a post in 1970 as lecturer in Political Science at Natal University. In 1970 he made contact with Black Consciousness leaders, among whom was Steve Biko. 1970 also saw the end of his first marriage, and the beginning of his second, to Foszia Fisher ?although his second marriage was not legally recognized in South Africa ?and they were married according to Muslim rites.

While at Natal,. he took a tremendous interest in students and student affairs. He acted as advisor to NUSAS (National Association of South African Students) and held office as honorary Vice President, and was always willing to offer advice and help; nevertheless, he never tried to dictate NUSAS policy or strategy. He gave many public lectures, extension lectures and seminars and became very important in student politics and thought, both at UND and nationally.

Together with Michael Nupen and Raphael de Kadt, Turner succeeded in making Political Science at Natal University one of the most intellectually stimulating and politically challenging courses in South Africa, with students flocking from all over the country to study Politics at UND. His influence, however, extended more widely than just to the students who took his courses. He conscientised many people ?students, workers and many others.

He took part in SPROCAS (Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society) contributing notably to the Education Reform Commission (1972) and the Politics Commission (1973) Reports. He discussed widely with various groups the alternatives to apartheid, challenging liberal-capitalist assumptions about society. Although very interested and involved in abstract criticism and writing, Turner realized that theory on its own would have no effect on the repressive South African system: it would first have to be translated into meaningful social action. He organized student work parties to help where there were community needs, and on many occasions ran seminars to help conscientise students. On one occasion, an education protest turned into a teach-in in the Students?Union and a subsequent door-to-door canvassing of Durban’s white population in the Glenwood area. (The results of this peaceful action were documented by the leaders of each group of students, and are held among other documents in the Richard Turner Document Collection, by kind permission of Mrs Foszia Turner-Stylianou, in the EG. Malherbe Library).

He worked closely with students to set up Wage Committees to help workers fight for their rights, working towards organizational structures which later formed the basis for an effective trade union movement.

During this time he published the work which best summarises his social democratic ideas, The Eye of the Needle, as well as many journal articles on the South African political system and political philosophy in general, and helped to launch the South African Labour Bulletin. He started work on two projects with which because of his banning he could not be associated in their final published form: a study with L.Schlemmer of the Institute for Social Research of the political attitudes of the white voters of Durban, and a work on the Durban Strikes of 1973 in which he studied the attitudes of striking African workers and of their Indian colleagues.

His commitment and involvement with students led to his being called to testify before the Schlebusch Commission of Inquiry into Certain Organisations in his capacity as NUSAS advisor (although he was involved in projects with each of the other organizations targeted by the Commission: the University Christian Movement, the Christian Institute, and the South African Institute of Race Relations). Ultimately this also led to his banning in 1973 for five years in terms of the Suppression of Communism Act, together with seven NUSAS and eight SASO leaders.

During his banning, although he could not publish (although he managed the occasional article under someone else’s name), he could think and write. He began a comprehensive work broadly covering political philosophy and morality. His influence was still felt, and the University of Natal showed its support of Dr Turner by keeping him on the academic staff throughout his banning, although in terms of his banning he was also not allowed to speak in public or attend meetings ?so he could not teach.

In 1975/76 Dr Turner was called, and in spite of his banning order was able to appear as a expert witness for the defence in the trial of 9 Black Consciousness leaders under the Terrorism Act (known as the SASO/BPC trial, or, more formally, as S.v. Cooper and others (TPD 23 September 1975 ?SALR 76.1 Jan.-Mar. p.933)).

In January 1978, when his banning order was about to expire and he he was hoping to take up the Fellowship in Germany, but ultimately to return to Natal and teach.He was murdered in front of his daughters by an unknown assassin. Although the killer was never identified (in spite of tremendous efforts in later years by Jann Turner, his elder daughter) there were strong indications of Security Police involvement in his murder. It was widely felt among his supporters that his knowledge and ability to implement a system which would bring justice to South Africa was felt to be too dangerous to the current South African regime to be allowed to continue to challenge oppression. Turner was able to provide both a “moral vision and a strategy for realizing that moral vision?(Greaves, 1993 quoting Webster) and his great strength was that his moral vision was “based on rational argument about values" (Greaves, 1993).

“I took my duties as a South African citizen seriously, by interesting myself in the nature of my society, and by making attempts to improve it where I thought necessary?
Richard Turner: Letter to Parliament.
South African Outlook, June 1978: 84-87.

G.C. & C.E. Dubbeld, April 2002

He shall never be forgotten nor shall his contribution to the liberation struggle be disregarded. His name is listed amongst those of Steve Biko, Chris Hani, Solomon Mahlangu, Griffith Mxenge and others!
ULIBAMBE LINGASHONI
The Masses Loved Him Too

VIVA SACP VIVA...VIVA ANC VIVA....VIVA COSATU VIVA



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