Port Shepstone human rights activist Prithiraj Dullay dies

Port Shepstone human rights activist and writer, Prithiraj (Pritz) Dullay (73) died in Denmark recently.

His niece, Nirvana Nankoomar described her uncle as larger than life and a wise soul.

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“He was patient and diligent and paid attention to what people were saying. His roots are here. His family and the town of Port Shepstone meant a lot to him,” she said.

Mrs Nankoomar has fond memories of her uncle teaching her and helping her with homework. He also inspired her to become a teacher.

“My uncle was a humble, wonderful man, my second father,” she said.

The ANC in KwaZulu paid tribute to Mr Dullay who had been an ANC exile in Denmark until 1992 and returned there more recently to care for his daughter who had been in a serious accident.

Mr Dullay cut his political teeth in the Black Consciousness Movement and was a contemporary and confidant of Steve Biko. It is an uncanny coincidence that they were both born on the same day in the same year.

He came from a politically-conscious family. His grandparents were imprisoned during the great 1913 strike of Indian indentured workers on the sugar plantations which brought the entire colony to a standstill.

His father was active in the Natal Indian Congress which has enjoyed a formal fraternal relationship with the ANC since the Three Doctors Pact of 1947.

That agreement united the Natal and Transvaal Indian Congresses with the ANC in the run-up to the 1952 Defiance Campaign, the 1955 Freedom Charter, the 1956 Treason Trial and subsequently the armed struggle.

As a young student at the Springfield College of Education, Mr Dullay served in the SRC and was arrested for the first time in 1968. His activism extended to working with depressed communities in areas such as Springfield flats where they built a hall that was later destroyed when the entire settlement was washed away by floods.

He was active in the Black Community Programmes and the Student Christian Movement as a platform of struggle even though he was a Hindu by faith.

He qualified as a teacher and worked in Port Shepstone. Many of the pupils he politicised then remain active in politics today. Mr Dullay’s political work associated with the 1976 Soweto Uprising that spread to all parts of the country saw him face further Security Branch harassment and arrest.

He and his wife Mala subsequently fled into exile in 1978 and joined the ANC attracted by its vision of a national democratic society. They worked in various places including the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College in Tanzania.

They were granted political asylum in Denmark where they continued the political work of the ANC.

After the unbanning of the ANC, Mr Dullay insisted on returning home at the earliest date. He continued his activism and worked at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) among other places.

He spearheaded the campaign to have one of the DUT campuses named in honour of Steve Biko.

He also penned an autobiography, ‘Saltwater runs in my veins’.

The statement concluded that Mr Dullay distinguished himself as an activist, an intellectual and a patriot.

Chief Whip at the Ray Nkonyeni Municipality, Selvan Chetty said Mr Dullay was a highly respected elder. “He led by example. He was a humanitarian, an academic, an extraordinarily ordinary person, simple, yet a giant of a man.”

He said Mr Dullay was a political strategist of note. “He guided a number of activists who occupy high posts in various sectors today.”

Mr Dullay’s ashes will be brought back to Port Shepstone.

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