COMMENTING on the role played by Enuga Reddy in promoting international sanctions against the South African apartheid regime, Sean MacBride, the Noble Peace Prize winner and former United Nations Commissioner for Namibia, at a public meeting held in Dublin in March 1985 commented that Reddy is one of the international activists who presaged the death knell of apartheid through international sanctions. “It has been my privilege to work with E.S. Reddy for 20 years, and I can say without fear of contradiction that there is no one at the United Nations who has done more to expose the injustices of apartheid and the illegality of the South African regime.
E.S. Reddy has done so with tremendous courage and ability. He dedicated his entire energy and skills to the liberation of oppressed people of Southern Africa,” commented MacBride. He further added that Reddy had to “face many obstacles and antagonism, coming from the Western Powers, mainly, but he had the skill, courage and determination necessary to overcome the systematic overt and covert opposition to the liberation of the people of Southern Africa.”
Olof Palme then Prime of Sweden also made similar comments in his congratulatory message to Reddy, which he wrote in 1985, saying: “Your own contribution to the work of the United Nations against apartheid had been formidable. Your devoted work has been highly appreciated by many of us here in Sweden.” Information on Reddy’s early childhood is sketchy, but he was born in 1924 in India and studied at the University of Madras. He went on to further his studies in 1946 in New York. Reddy’s arrival in New York coincided with the African miners’ strike and the Indian passive resistance, as well as the United Nations discussion on racial discrimination in South Africa. Such political events seem to have shaped his later political involvement in the struggle against apartheid. Whilst studying in New York he began to participate in political activities, particularly events organized by the Council on African Affairs in protest against racism in South Africa.
Besides these, his political involvement in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa reached new heights in 1949, when he joined the United Nations Secretariat, which amongst others, dealt with issues aimed at the liberation of the colonised people of the world. In 1963, he was appointed to serve as the official in charge of action against apartheid. He first worked as principal secretary of the Special Committee against Apartheid and later on as Director of the Centre against Apartheid. This only lasted until 1982 and thereafter, he rose within the ranks of the United Nations and became the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1983 to 1985.
During his tenure at the United Nations, he achieved a milestone in promoting the cause of the Special Committee against Apartheid. It is against this background that one of the biographical files on him cites that Reddy has made an enormous contribution to the achievement of the primary objectives of the committee, which was to promote sanctions against apartheid.
“He organized and participated in scores of international conferences and seminars against apartheid, undertook missions to a number of capitals to promote actions against the racist regime and administered funds for scholarships and for assistance to political prisoners in Southern Africa,” according to a citation in Reddy’s biographical file. In honour of his achievements, the World Peace Council awarded him the Joliot-Curie Medal in 1982. The University of Durban-Westville also awarded him a honorary doctorate degree in 1995 for his contribution to the struggle against apartheid.
By Timoteus Mashuna