Paying tribute to Louis and Mpumi Moholo - musical legends, friends of the Struggle

THERE are some people you meet in life who leave a lasting impression-not because of their fame, but because of the spirit they carry.

- DR IQBAL SURVÉ

Louis Moholo and his wife, Mpumi, were such people. Gentle, principled and full of life; they were more than musical legends. They were fellow South Africans in exile, friends of the struggle, and vessels of a sound that carried our country's deepest hopes and truths.

In January 1989, Amnesty International invited me to deliver one of the keynote addresses at a global conference of Doctors Against Torture, held at UNESCO in Paris. This was in recognition of the work I was doing at the time with detainees and political prisoners in South Africa.

As part of the discussions at that conference-and in a particularly meaningful meeting I had with the former First Lady of France, Madame Danielle Mitterrand-we explored how to isolate the then South African Medical Association from the World Medical Association.

The purpose was clear: if the association refused to take a public stand against doctors who were either directly or indirectly involved in the torture of political prisoners, they could not be allowed to remain part of the global medical fraternity.