Ramnie Dinat

Ramnie Naidoo, the daughter of Ama and Narainsamy Thambi Naidoo, worked in the Transvaal Indian Youth Congress (TIYC) since her childhood. At the age of nine, while distributing Congress leaflets, she was knocked down and stepped on by a constable.

She married Mohamed Ismail (“Issy”) Dinat who was detained on 9 December 1964 and held for three weeks due to his political activities. He was detained again in 1966 and called to give evidence at the trial of the late Bram Fischer, Chairman of the South African Communist Party (SACP). Ramnie, then pregnant, queued up daily at the court for the hearing, sometimes to be turned away as the seats for Blacks in the gallery were all taken, many by the police.

Dinat spent four months in detention and escaped from South Africa soon after release.

Ramnie decided to leave South Africa in February 1967, with her two small children, Nataly and Sean, to join her husband in London. However, her passport was withdrawn two days before she was due to leave. After hurried approaches to the authorities, she obtained an "exit permit," prohibiting her from returning to South Africa, and left as planned.

In London, she worked at the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa and was active in the African National Congress (ANC) and the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Ramnie and her family returned to South Africa after the ban on the ANC was withdrawn in 1990.