Love and Courage
A story of insubordination
By Pregs Govender
Pregs Govender must be around my age as she was in high school at the time of the Soweto Riots of 1976. It was interesting to read her life story as I could parallel it with my own. If I thought the chauvinism and discrimination (racial and gender) of my childhood and early adulthood was bad, it was mild compared to what she had to contend with as an ‘Indian’ South African woman growing up in apartheid, patriarchal South Africa. In many ways her middle class background was similar to mine – with supportive parents who wanted a good education and a secure lifestyle for their children, a good school (matriculating at Durban Indian Girls High) and a BA at the University of Westville in Durban. Pregs’ 'insubordinate' tendencies started early - like refusing to stand for the singing of ‘Die Stem’ in her standard 7 class. She was a founding member of her school’s Pupils Representative Council, and at university she continued her stand against social injustice. A school teaching career and later teaching work for the trade union movement gave her a name for being ‘insubordinate’ (and very nearly led to her ‘elimination’ in a rather dark and ugly little insight into how the ANC in exile operated). She then accepted a post as MP in the newly formed and optimistic ANC government in 1994.
I have always been a great admirer of Pregs, and her passion and integrity comes across in her book. The reader also has more of an insight into Pregs the mother of 3 children, Pregs the poet who enjoys yoga and just Pregs the person who may be enormously energetic and clever, but also has insecurities, fears and doubts.
As in Andrew Feinstein’s book, After the party, it is sad to read how corruption and greed for power and material wealth eventually forces her and Feinstein out of the SA parliament and out of the ANC, an institution for which they both feel extreme guilt and misery at having to ‘betray’ by leaving. To my way of thinking it is the ANC with their disappointing handling of the Arms Deal and the appalling way they are dealing with the AIDS crisis (to name but two) that has betrayed the integrity and trust of Feinstein and Govender, not the other way round!
To get back to the book, the first (‘Life’) and last (‘Choices’, ‘The Arms Deal’ and ‘No HIV/AIDS’) parts I found riveting, but I got a bit bogged down in acronyms and committees in the middle (‘Politics’ and ‘Power’), but all in all it is a well written, concise and fascinating book. I am now even more of a fan of Pregs!
My main complaint is that there are no photographs.
By Pregs Govender
Pregs Govender must be around my age as she was in high school at the time of the Soweto Riots of 1976. It was interesting to read her life story as I could parallel it with my own. If I thought the chauvinism and discrimination (racial and gender) of my childhood and early adulthood was bad, it was mild compared to what she had to contend with as an ‘Indian’ South African woman growing up in apartheid, patriarchal South Africa. In many ways her middle class background was similar to mine – with supportive parents who wanted a good education and a secure lifestyle for their children, a good school (matriculating at Durban Indian Girls High) and a BA at the University of Westville in Durban. Pregs’ 'insubordinate' tendencies started early - like refusing to stand for the singing of ‘Die Stem’ in her standard 7 class. She was a founding member of her school’s Pupils Representative Council, and at university she continued her stand against social injustice. A school teaching career and later teaching work for the trade union movement gave her a name for being ‘insubordinate’ (and very nearly led to her ‘elimination’ in a rather dark and ugly little insight into how the ANC in exile operated). She then accepted a post as MP in the newly formed and optimistic ANC government in 1994.
I have always been a great admirer of Pregs, and her passion and integrity comes across in her book. The reader also has more of an insight into Pregs the mother of 3 children, Pregs the poet who enjoys yoga and just Pregs the person who may be enormously energetic and clever, but also has insecurities, fears and doubts.
As in Andrew Feinstein’s book, After the party, it is sad to read how corruption and greed for power and material wealth eventually forces her and Feinstein out of the SA parliament and out of the ANC, an institution for which they both feel extreme guilt and misery at having to ‘betray’ by leaving. To my way of thinking it is the ANC with their disappointing handling of the Arms Deal and the appalling way they are dealing with the AIDS crisis (to name but two) that has betrayed the integrity and trust of Feinstein and Govender, not the other way round!
To get back to the book, the first (‘Life’) and last (‘Choices’, ‘The Arms Deal’ and ‘No HIV/AIDS’) parts I found riveting, but I got a bit bogged down in acronyms and committees in the middle (‘Politics’ and ‘Power’), but all in all it is a well written, concise and fascinating book. I am now even more of a fan of Pregs!
My main complaint is that there are no photographs.
Comment on Love and Courage (Jacana, Auckland Park, 2007) by Caroline
Woodlands Booklub Rating: 4
Book no 2145 (Brenda)
