The sinister campaign of threats and violence faced by a Glasgow couple who protested against South African apartheid
“We’re coming to get you.”
That was the terrifying threat Maggie Chetty received in an apartheid-era phone call to the home she shared with husband Radha.
They believe the call came from South African Special Branch operatives, active in the UK at the time.
Radha Chetty had left his South African home in 1957. He was denied an education under the country’s apartheid laws which , but in Britain he was free to enrol at university in Glasgow.
Radha married Maggie, a local activist, and the couple settled in the city, but they remained mindful of the troubles in South Africa and did what they could to raise awareness.
“We’d had a whole stream of people coming to stay with us from the African National Congress,” said Maggie on Glasgow, Love and Apartheid.
“People who came to speak at meetings, old family friends of the Chettys.”
These actions did not go unnoticed.
鈥淲e鈥檙e coming to get you鈥
The family received threatening phone calls and unwelcome visitors.
“I was very suspicious of the establishment in Britain that had an interest in keeping the South African government sweet because of economic interests,” Radha revealed.
The Chettys’ daily activities were monitored and photographed.
On one occasion, two burly men tried to force their way into their home.
“They were terrifying,” recalled Maggie.
“You knew you were dealing with people who would stop at nothing to maintain the relationship with the United Kingdom.”
Glasgow鈥檚 protest of apartheid
As apartheid dragged on, the city of Glasgow made a stand against the South African regime.
In 1981 it bestowed the freedom of the city to Nelson Mandela, who was still incarcerated in Robben Island.
And, in a controversial move, it renamed St George’s Place, home of the South African consulate-general, to Nelson Mandela Place.
South Africa under apartheid
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