John Harris was not yet 30 when he went to the gallows. Convicted of the bombing of Johannesburg train station, he was the only white person to be executed by the South African apartheid regime for crimes committed in resistance to apartheid. The account of Harris’ execution is vividly recounted in Peter Hain’s book, Ad and Wal, which tells the story of his mother, Adelaine, and father, Walter, both white, anti-apartheid activists in South Africa.
Hain’s account of Harris’ crime and execution is one that reinforces the wickedness of the apartheid regime. On the day of the bombing, Harris phoned in a warning to ensure that the platform at Johannesburg station would be clear. That threat was received but deliberately not acted on, on the basis that the apartheid regime deemed it would be more beneficial to its propaganda for the bombing to inflict maximum damage (one person was killed and 23 were injured).
As if the prospect of facing the gallows was not traumatic enough, the apartheid security regime then staged an escape plot which gave both Harris, his family and friends, including Ad and Wal, a false hope of reprieve. On the night of his ‘escape’, instead of the warder who he was told would lead him to safety, he was met in his cell by apartheid spy chief Henrik van den Bergh. Van den Bergh mocked him and offered him survival if he gave up his co-conspirators. Harris stayed quiet.
The hanging of Harris took place just a year before Ad and Wal would flee South Africa along with their children. Their exile was the culmination of a political journey that took them from teenagers who held the belief that everyone should be treated equally to activists whose brave actions in opposing apartheid saw them harassed and arrested.
There is much to like about this book and its stories of resistance among the white South African community, both in South Africa and in exile. Its later chapters, focusing on the exile of the Hain family in Britain, provide a particularly interesting first-hand insight into the UK’s vibrant anti-apartheid movement.
The book is only slightly spoilt by the fact that its first third is a somewhat laborious read. The first 100 pages contain tales of Wal’s service in the second world war, the upbringing of both Ad and Wal, how they met each other and a car drive across Africa in their first years of marriage. These tales could (and arguably should, by a ruthless editor) have been cut, or at the very least severely trimmed.
That detracts from what is otherwise a solid effort that provides an interesting insight into life both as white anti-apartheid activists in South Africa and in exile in the UK. If you want to get the most out of this book I would recommend starting at chapter four, but that should not put you off altogether.
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Jack Storry is international officer at Young Labour and a member of the national executive committee of Action for Southern Africa
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Ad and Wal: Values, Duty, Sacrifice in Apartheid South Africa
Peter Hain
BiteBack Publishing | 384pp | £18.99