Jurie Thaver: a life dedicated to activism and community service

FROM a young age, Jurie Thaver had a passion for helping those in need and would later join the fight against apartheid with fellow Struggle activists.

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“The most important thing for me was a free South Africa and to end segregation. More than 40 years later - I can proudly say, together with my fellow comrades, we fought a good fight to be where we are today. The anguish we endured was worth it,” said Thaver.

Childhood

The 57-year-old, of Malvern, said she lived with her father, Simadri Naidu, her mother, Kalamma “Indrani” Naidu, eight siblings, paternal grandmother and paternal aunt in a two-roomed house in Bayview, Chatsworth.

“It was a tiny house, but we lived comfortably. Even if there was a family member or friend who needed a place to stay, my grandmother opened her door to them.”

My mother, my hero

Thaver said when she was 7 years old, her father died. He worked as a supervisor at an iron and steel company.

“A machine fell on his chest and he died a few days later in hospital. My mother, who is now late, became a widow when she was just 27 years old. But she also became a single mother to nine children - five of whom were from my father’s first marriage. My father’s first wife, who was pregnant with twins, died during childbirth. He later married my mother and had four more children - me, my twin brothers and younger sister.

“But to my mother, we were all her children and she never treated us differently. I still remember she used to take us by train to visit my siblings’ family members in Illovo at the weekend. This was to keep the memory of their mother alive. I will always admire her for this.

“Although my mother was stern, she was also playful and a child at heart. After school, she gathered all my siblings and the children from the neighbourhood, on the road. There weren’t many cars back then. We played games including three-tins, five-stones and hopscotch. We were a close-knit community. There were no fences that divided our homes, so everyone used to be in one another's yards,” she said.

Education