I first came into contact with Comrade Devadas Paul David in 1977, soon after a few of us established the Tongaat Youth Club. We were struck by his youthful exuberance, his eloquence, his energy, and, more importantly, his infectious laughter and humour. We soon learnt that Paul was a formidable sports person in his own right, having excelled in both soccer and cricket.

It is therefore not surprising that he became a sports administrator of note, having cut his teeth in the Stanger and District Cricket Association and serving as its representative on the Natal Cricket Board of Control. He served as its treasurer for four years and was elected as a delegate to the South African Council of Sport. In later years, Paul was elected the President of the Natal Council of Sport (NACOS) and convened the National Sports Congress.

Paul joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1959 in the prime of his youth.  He was 18 years old at the time. When the ANC was banned in 1960, he became an underground operative. He was an integral part of the revival of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in 1971 and became one of its Vice Presidents. 

Paul was detained in 1980 after the national schools boycott and was one of the founding members of the Durban Housing Action Committee (DHAC) in March 1980. In 1983, he was part of the leadership core of the United Democratic Front (UDF), which was founded in Cape Town. He is best remembered for when he and five other Congress leaders sought refuge in the British Consulate, Durban, Natal, in 1984 for almost four months.  This particular episode brought international exposure to apartheid. All were subsequently charged with high treason and imprisoned for a further few months before being acquitted in 1986.

Paul led the Natal Rates Campaign and played a pivotal role in the formation of the Release Mandela Campaign. He represented the NIC at the Congress for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) in 1991. He served on the Task Group which examined the future of the TBVC States—Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei.

Paul’s resilience, strength of character, simplicity, humility, intellect, oratory skills, and indomitable spirit inspired a generation of activists like me. The cause that he pursued with so much vigour and dedication is a testimony of how dearly he espoused human values, which are so sadly lacking in our present body politic and society. His contribution to the pursuit of truth and social justice was admired and respected by friend and foe alike. He was the champion of the poor and the weak in an unequal society.  He gave so much for so long, expecting nothing in return. 

Devadas Paul David taught many of us what it means to give unselfishly, to be disciplined, to be committed to a just cause, to be part of a democratic collective with a common vision, to build a truly non-racial, non-sexist, democratic society.

*Siva Naidoo is a veteran Tongaat Activist and serves on the Advisory Board of the Gandhi Luthuli Documentation Centre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.