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Published: 1 June, 2012
by JOHN GULLIVER

I MADE a telephone call on Wednesday and immediately sensed the raw emotion at the other end.

I was talking to Gillian Slovo, an accomplished writer, about a special ceremony next week to commemorate the death of her mother, Ruth First, 30 years ago.

It made headlines at the time as Ruth, a journalist and campaigner, was killed by a parcel bomb in Mozambique that had been carefully packed by a South African secret police officer.

To mark the anniversary, the Institute of Commonwealth Studies are holding a conference at Senate house, Bloomsbury, to honour her life and work.

Hampstead-based Gillian will be joined by South African judge Albie Sachs, who was also the subject of a assassination attempt – he survived a car bomb in the same country and same year as Ruth, and lost a right arm and a right eye. 

Campaigning for the freedom of South Africa she wrote: “I count myself as an African and there is no cause I hold dearer.”

For Gillian, as the daughter of Ruth and her husband, the famous Communist Joe Slovo, it meant a youth spent constantly worried about police harassment.

“It created an enormous amount of stress in my childhood and made things hard, but it also made me a member of the real South Africa,” said Gillian.

“I was privileged to be in that position, and my parents were also lucky to have the opportunity to actually change the world in the way they did.”

But the events of that awful, tragic day 30 years ago are still raw, and always no doubt will be.

While Mr Sachs has written a book about how he forgave the men responsible for the bomb attack on him, Gillian feels differently. 

“I have not forgiven them,” she admitted.

“For me forgiveness is not the point. Some say it can help ease and heal, but I have not forgiven the South African government or the people who killed my mother.”

Yet she believes the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, which in the post-Apartheid era has allowed those who committed atrocities to confess to their crimes without the threat of prison sentences, would be what her mother would have wanted. 

“The Truth and reconciliation Committee was a compromise and I believe it is what my mother would have supported,” said Gillian.

“She would not have wanted the country to descend into civil war, and that may have happened had her killers gone to jail. It was a political compromise, that helped avoid further deaths. 

“One of the legacies of my mother was how she helped show it did not matter what colour your skin was, you should fight for justice. It showed white South Africa that they could make different choices. Her legacy shows that even if you are privileged, you should fight for justice for all.”

A Revolutionary Life: Ruth First 1925-1982. June 7, 10am-7pm, The Beveridge Hall, Senate House.