SA Indian Chutney

17/01/2024

Mayday: Air Crash Investigation - South African Airways Flight 295 [Springbok 295]

#1987

South African Airways Flight 295 (SA295/SAA295) was a scheduled international passenger flight from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, Taipei, Taiwan, to the then Jan Smuts International Airport [now OR Tambo International Airport], Johannesburg, South Africa, with a stopover in Plaisance Airport, Plaine Magnien, Mauritius. On 28 November 1987, the aircraft serving the flight, a Boeing 747-200 Combi named Helderberg, experienced a catastrophic in-flight fire in the cargo area, broke up in mid-air, and crashed into the Indian Ocean east of Mauritius, killing all 159 people on board. An extensive salvage operation was mounted to try to recover the aircraft's flight recorders, one of which was recovered from a depth of 4,900 metres (16,100 ft).

The official inquiry, headed by Judge Cecil Margo, was unable to determine the cause of the fire. This lack of a conclusion led to conspiracy theories, debates and speculation about the nature of Flight 295's cargo, as well as a subsequent post-apartheid investigation and calls from relatives of those on the flight to re-open the investigation in the years following the accident.

24/11/2023

23/10/2023

ABH Radio Lotus 94/95 Full Show

22/09/2023

What Gandhi gave South Africa, 100+yrs on

It’s been over a hundred years since Mahatma Gandhi left South African soil. He went on to alter the course of history in India, but he’d already taught South Africa’s oppressed a few lessons in effective, peaceful resistance – and South Africa taught him a few things in return.

Our country played a pivotal role in shaping Gandhi’s political outlook. In turn, his leadership and courage at the turn of the 20th century shaped the course of South African liberation history.

He had come to our country to represent an Indian firm on a legal matter, but stayed on to launch an impressive campaign of civil disobedience against discriminatory policies and practices faced by Indian indentured labourers and business people in Natal and Transvaal.

Gandhi’s Passive Resistance Campaigns of 1907 and 1913 brought him international acclaim. Our late President Mandela referred to this when he delivered a speech in India stating, “You gave us Mohandas [Gandhi]; we returned him to you as Mahatma (meaning ‘venerable’ in Sanskrit)”.

Gandhi first experienced race discrimination in 1893 when he was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg Station because he refused to leave the “whites-only”, first-class compartment.

He later said that this was a defining moment in his life, when he came face to face with the “disease of colour prejudice”. He swore to make it his responsibility to fight this social disease with all his strength. His moral indignation of a singular incident sparked a passion for social equality, which would act as a catalyst for his radicalisation and politicisation.

During the two decades he spent in South Africa, Gandhi organised popular resistance of Indians against the white colonial and republican governments of the British and Afrikaners respectively. Racist laws aimed at restricting Indians from participating in the economy, invalidating their customary marriages, and restricting their free movement in the country were vigorously opposed.

The organisational lessons that Gandhi learnt in South Africa would serve him well in the anti-colonial struggle he waged in India against the British. Gandhi’s resistance campaigns certainly influenced the course of political history in South Africa in later years.

There can be little doubt that African leaders that had gathered in Bloemfontein in January 1912 to form the African National Congress (ANC) would have looked to the struggles led by Gandhi.
Many years later, Mandela said that Gandhi was “the archetypal anti-colonial revolutionary”. He went on to proclaim that “both Gandhi and I suffered colonial oppression, and both of us mobilised our respective peoples against governments that violated our freedoms”.
In a fitting coincidence of history, the two leaders were both lawyers who spent time in jail cells in Johannesburg’s Old Fort prison – Gandhi in 1906, and Mandela in 1962.

Perhaps the greatest legacy that Gandhi left in South Africa was his fellow satyagrahis. In later years, the families of his close confidants such as Thambi Naidoo, Parsi Rustomji and Ahmed Mohamed Cachalia played a major role in the struggle for a non-racial, democratic South Africa.

His example of determined, non-violent struggle and defending the dignity of all human beings remains relevant to this day.
As we mark the centenary of Gandhi’s departure from South Africa, let us recommit to promoting and emulating the lessons of life that he has bequeathed to all of us.

Courtesy Prema Naidoo, trustee of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation
- https://www.capeinsights.com/what-gandhi-gave-south-africa-100-yrs-on/

22/09/2023

What Is the Spirit of Ubuntu? How Can We Have It in Our Lives?

When former president of the United States, Barack Obama, made a speech earlier this year in Johannesburg — at the 2018 Nelson Mandela annual lecture — he said that Mandela “understood the ties that bind the human spirit.”

“There is a word in South Africa — Ubuntu — that describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us,” Obama said.

“Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu” or “I am, because you are” is how we describe the meaning of Ubuntu. It speaks to the fact that we are all connected and that one can only grow and progress through the growth and progression of others.

Ubuntu has since been used as a reminder for society on how we should be treating others.

Nelson Mandela once said: “A traveller through a country would stop at a village and he didn’t have to ask for food or for water. Once he stops, the people give him food, entertain him. That is one aspect of Ubuntu but it will have various aspects."

This example of the concept of Ubuntu shows the exact “oneness” Obama describes in his speech. As a society, looking after one another plays a major role in the success of humanity.

Mandela is the true definition of Ubuntu, as he used this concept to lead South Africa to a peaceful post-apartheid transition. He never had the intention of teaching our oppressors a lesson. Instead, he operated with compassion and integrity, showing us that for us to be a better South Africa, we cannot act out of vengeance or retaliation, but out of peace.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1996, also touched on the meaning of Ubuntu and how it defines us as a society.

“We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world,” he said. “When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity."

This is exactly what Ubuntu is about, it’s a reminder that no one is an island — every single thing that you do, good or bad, has an effect on your family, friends, and society. It also reminds us that we need think twice about the choices we want to make and the kind of impact they may have on others.

What exactly are we doing to live Ubuntu and make it a daily act in our lives?

Gender inequality, poverty, and violence happens on a global scale and these atrocities are what tells us that we need to do more as a society to actively live and breathe Ubuntu and put it into action on a daily basis.

Everyone in society needs to play a part, regardless of how small one may think it is. We all have a role to play and it’s of vital importance that our actions inspire others to want to be a part of a better and brighter future.

Ubuntu is also about justice, and particularly, justice for all people. As much as we must look after each other, it is also just as important that we exercise fairness and equality for all people regardless of race, gender, or social status.

So essentially, Ubuntu is about togetherness as well as a fight for the greater good. This is what Mandela was prepared to sacrifice his life for.

Ubuntu is the common thread and DNA that runs through the UN’s Global Goals, because without the spirit of Ubuntu within us, we cannot implement great change in our society. It’s imperative that we help all people, young and old, to achieve only the best for our future.

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21/09/2023

Hussein Vally - Live in Pietermaritzburg [ft Bollywood Masti Dance Fusion & Aradhana Sungeeth]

21/09/2023

Reena Buthuram & Krishna Rambally's Wedding - Stanger Town Hall - 23 Feb 1986

#1986

10/09/2023

TikTok Fiesta - 23 Sep 2023 - Chatsworth, KZN [www.quicket.co.za]