apartheid activist
Veteran anti-apartheid stalwart Sunny Girja Singh has died at 86. From early Umkhonto weSizwe recruitment to time on Robben Island, exile, underground operations and post-apartheid service, Singh devoted his life to justice and freedom. The nation honours his memory with a provincial official funeral and flags at half-mast in KwaZulu-Natal.
South Africa mourns one of its enduring heroes of the liberation struggle. Sunny Girja Singh, aged 86, passed away recently. His death prompted a national tribute: in KwaZulu-Natal the flag will be flown at half-mast on the day of his funeral after a special provincial official funeral was approved by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Born in 1939 in Cato Manor, Durban, Singh’s political consciousness was awakened by the injustices of apartheid. As a young man he joined the Natal Indian Youth Congress and later the Natal Indian Congress, stepping into the ranks of the armed wing Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) early in the 1960s.
In 1963, he was arrested and stood accused in the Pietermaritzburg Sabotage Trial ─ often referred to as the “Little Rivonia Trial.” Convicted, he was sentenced to ten years on Robben Island, where he endured brutal conditions, forced labour and systemic abuse. Yet even in prison, he resisted mentally and spiritually, organising political education among inmates and smuggling news and information into isolation cells.
After his release in 1974 and a period under house arrest, Singh refused to abandon the struggle. He helped organise underground resistance, labour unions and community initiatives. When exile beckoned in 1976, he underwent guerrilla training and later served in key MK roles across Angola, Mozambique, and other frontline states. He represented the banned African National Congress abroad, including heading its mission in the Netherlands, helping build international support against apartheid.
With the advent of democracy, Singh returned home in 1991 and contributed directly to nation building. He joined the police service’s intelligence structures and dedicated his retirement years to preserving liberation history. He established a heritage centre in Durban so younger generations could remember and learn from past sacrifices.
Tributes have poured in. ANC KwaZulu-Natal describes him as a disciplined, principled comrade whose life embodied the values of justice, equality and human dignity. Fellow activists call him humble, steadfast and deeply committed to the vision of a non-racial South Africa.
Singh’s legacy will live on not only in monuments or ceremonies, but in the lives of those he touched, comrades, young activists, ordinary citizens, and in the moral compass he helped anchor for a liberated South Africa. His passing marks the loss of one of the final remaining links to a generation that fought tirelessly for freedom with conviction and conscience.
