A Circle of Impressions Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #198)

well informed and ably outlined the urgent problems he thought the ANC head office in Johannesburg should attend to and made constructive suggestions. In the evening we returned to Durban and, as usual, I stayed with Ismail Meer, spending most of the time in the kitchen with his wife, Fatima. During the three days I spent in Durban I had discussions with Masabalala Yengwa, Stephen Dlamini and other leading members of the ANC in that city. Later, I met Dr. Monty Naicker and other members of the Executive of the NIC. One of the questions I had been discussing with my colleagues during this trip and which I now raised with my NIC colleagues, was the effect that bans and restrictions imposed by the government on our leading members were having on our organisations. Once a person was banned he came to accept the restrictions and ceased to be active. In my discussions I set out to urge that this should not be allowed to happen and that banned members should continue to play an active part. In this instance Debi Singh, usually in a good frame of mind and keen on discussion, made the conversation lively when he protested against what he called constant meddling in the internal affairs of Natal by people from the Transvaal and asked me to leave them in peace, adding that we would do the movement a lot of good if we concentrated on organising the Transvaal first and solving its problems before we offered advice to others. But he was a disciplined and experienced man with his hart in the movement and, once he realised that his colleagues did not share his point of view, he immediatly fell in line and participated fully in the discussions. From Durban I travelled along the south coast past Port Shepstone down to Port St. Johns. Places