Neil Aggett - Life and Death

Life and Death

Aggett was born in Nanyuki, Kenya, and his family moved to South Africa in 1964, where he attended Kingswood College (South Africa) in Grahamstown from 1964 to 1970, and later the University of Cape Town, where he completed a medical degree in 1976.

Aggett worked as a physician in Black hospitals (under apartheid hospitals were segregated) in Umtata, Tembisa and later at Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, where he became a popular and active trade union member, learning to speak Zulu. He was appointed organiser of the Transvaal Food and Canning Workers’ Union, and helped organise a successful strike against Fatti’s and Moni’s in Islando, which later spread further afield.

Harassed by the security forces, he was entrusted with organising a mass action campaign in Langa near Cape Town. He was detained by the security police shortly afterwards, on 27 November 1981. His death on 5 February 1982, after 70 days of detention without trial, marked the 51st death in detention. He was 28 years old. He was the first white person to die in detention since 1963.

According to the South African security police, Aggett committed suicide while held at the John Vorster Square police station, by hanging himself with a scarf that a friend had knitted for him. An inquest on 29 June recorded an open verdict. No prosecution was ever brought for his death. The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission stated that 'troubling inquests', such as the one into Aggett's death, caused the Apartheid regime to find alternative ways of disposing of its opponents, including 'disappearing' people.

Some five years after his death, at the 1987 conference of the Five Freedoms Forum, fellow detainee, Frank Chikane recalled how he had seen Aggett in jail returning from one of his interrogations, being half carried, half dragged by warders; Chikane saw this as a sign of how badly injured Aggett was already at the time.

About 15,000 people attended his funeral on 11 February 1982, which was conducted by Bishop Desmond Tutu. His union called for a stayaway on the day, to which about 7000 Volkswagen workers in Uitenhage responded. A worker's protest at his murder drew the support of a 100 000 workers

Johnny Clegg includes a tribute to Aggett in one of his songs, Asimbonanga (Mandela) on the Third World Child album (1987).