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This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

15 Oct 2005: Shaik, Mo

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POM. I have papers here, I'm with Mo Shaik. Mo appeared for – first of all he had a passport.

MS. Nobody had.

POM. It says 'renewal'.

MS. Renewal, yes.

POM. So he had a passport and he applied for a renewal of his passport on – what date? The date would be 17 March 1982 and he applied for it at the Regional Representative of the Department of Internal Affairs in Durban, Private Bag X4311, Durban 4000. His reference number was D331/81 and the letter was addressed to Mr R Shaik at 93 Allenby Road, Greenwood Park, Durban: -

. "Sir,

. Renewal of Passport.

. I regret to inform you that your application for the renewal of your passport has not been successful. Enclosed find your passport D1361817.

. Yours faithfully,

. Regional Representative, Durban."

. The name is indecipherable. Absolutely no explanation given.

MS. Fouche, HM Fouche.

POM. At that time you had not been detained?

MS. No, I was only detained in 1985.

POM. So the only record they would have had on you was of being a student activist.

MS. Yes.

POM. Do you have any recollection of the time it took from when you applied for renewal to receiving confirmation that it wouldn't be renewed?

MS. A couple of months.

POM. And then you got a second one in February? Same guy, you get the same letter, exact same letter on 22 February 1983, a better typed letter but the same patter.

MS. And again in 1984. It was a yearly thing for me.

POM. And in 1984 on 22 February 1984 he gets the very same letter again. Again it was refused but his number now had become D331/81. So were passports renewed – did you have to be detained, did you have to be arrested, no, if you were just a student activist it was sufficient to get you on a list, obviously at least in Durban. So the file on you at that time –

MS. Three years, 1982, 1983, 1984, I was only detained in 1985, so for three years they refused to renew my passport. Three years! And I wasn't even detained.

POM. They knew you had the makings of somebody who was going to be detained.

MS. And then, what then?

POM. They said hold on to this guy and sooner or later he's going to get himself detained. We're not having him abroad.

MS. Exactly. I got a wonderful letter from Adriaan Vlok dated 20 November:

. "Your release from detention:

. We wish to advise that the matter has received the necessary attention and I regret to inform you that your request cannot be acceded to at this stage."

POM. That was on 2 February 1986, this was a letter to Shaik care of the Station Commander of Police, South African Police Private Bag, CR Swart, Durban, 4000, representation for release in terms of Section 29(4) of the Internal Security Act 1982.

. "With reference to your representation dated 20 November 1985 for your release from detention I regret to advise that the matter has received the necessary attention and I regret to inform you that your request cannot be acceded to at this stage.

. Yours faithfully,

. Adriaan Vlok – Deputy Minister of Law and Order."

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