January 1: On This Day in World History … briefly
Donald Woods gained notoriety for his support of black leader Steve Biko, who was killed while in police custody in September 1977.
1978: Flight to freedom for banned journalist
Banned South African newspaper editor Donald Woods of the Daily Dispatch flees to Lesotho after escaping from house-arrest in East London. He was a South African journalist and anti-apartheid activist. As editor of the Daily Dispatch, he was known for befriending fellow activist Steve Biko, who was killed by the police after being detained by the South African government. Woods continued his campaign against apartheid in London, and in 1978 became the first private citizen to address the United Nations Security Council.
Soon after Biko’s death, Woods was himself placed under a five-year ban. He was stripped of his editorship and was not allowed to speak publicly, write, travel or even work for the duration of his ban. Over the next year, he was subjected to increasing harassment, and his phone was tapped. The final straw came when his six-year-old daughter was severely burned by a T-shirt laced with ninhydrin. Convinced that the government was trying to have him killed, Woods decided to flee South Africa. Woods and friends Drew Court and Robin Walker devised a plan for him to be smuggled out of his house. Disguised as an Anglican priest, Father ‘David C Curren’, on New Year’s Eve 1977, Woods hitchhiked out of town then drove in convoy with Court 480km before attempting to cross the Telle River, a tributary of the Orange River, between South Africa and Lesotho. However, following days of steady rain, the river had flooded, leaving him to resort to crossing at the Telle Bridge border crossing in a Lesotho Postal Service truck driven by an unsuspecting Lesotha man, who was merely giving the ‘priest’ a ride.
He made it undetected by South African customs and border officials to Lesotho, where, prompted by a prearranged telephone call, his family joined him shortly afterwards. Once they arrived in Lesotho, Bruce Haigh, an Australian diplomat of the embassy, drove him to Maseru. With the help of the British High Commission (in Maseru) and from the Government of Lesotho, they flew under United Nations passports and with one Lesotho Government official over South African airspace, via Botswana to London where they were granted political asylum. After arriving in London, Woods became an active spokesman against apartheid. Acting upon the advice of Oliver Tambo, the President of the African National Congress (ANC), Woods became a passionate advocate of nations imposing sanctions against South Africa. He toured the United States campaigning for sanctions against apartheid. The trip included a three-hour session, arranged by President Jimmy Carter, to address officials in the US Department of State. Woods also spoke at a session of the United Nations Security Council in 1978.
On 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison after serving twenty-seven years in prison, 17 of those years on Robben Island. That Easter, Mandela came to London to attend a concert at Wembley Stadium to thank the anti-apartheid Movement and the British people for their years of campaigning against apartheid. Woods gave Mandela a tie in the black, green and gold colours of the African National Congress to celebrate the event, which Mandela wore at the concert the next day. Donald Woods’s eldest son Dillon Woods is currently the Chief Executive of the East London-based Donald Woods Foundation, which is an educational foundation in South Africa. His son Gavin appears on the Johnny Vaughan show on Radio X.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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