Laloo Chiba interviewed by David Bailey June 16, 2007 Cape Town, South Africa.
"This is the double life that you lead... Little did they know that I was also involved in the armed struggle." [3:03]
In order to be active in underground organizations and the armed struggle, it was necessary to carry out an ordinary life and keep these other activities secret from family and friends.
Born in 1930, Laloo Chiba was active in the Transvaal Indian Congress, a legal organization, and also joined the South African Communist Party and Umkonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the African National Congress in 1961. He became a platoon commander in MK, responsible for four cells conducting sabotage operations. Chiba was brutally tortured by the Special Branch, about which he testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He was charged with membership of the second High Command of MK, and served a prison term on Robben Island from 1964 to 1982. Chiba served in the first democratic Parliament and, in 2004, he received the Order of Luthuli in Silver from the government for his contribution to the struggle for a non-racial, non-sexist, just and democratic South Africa.
