Death of an Idealist: In Search of Neil Aggett (Anti-apartheid activist) Beverley Naidoo

Neil Aggett was 28 when he was found hanging from the bars of the steel grille in his cell in Security Police headquarters in Johannesburg on 5 February 1982. He was the 51st detainee, and the first white person, to die in apartheid detention. The death of this quiet, intense young doctor who worked as an unpaid trade unionist, provoked a huge outcry. Thousands of black workers followed his coffin through Johannesburg, declaring him a ‘man of the people’ murdered by the police. His life involved a remarkable transformation from the settler child born in Kenya in 1953, with a father who interrogated Mau Mau suspects. Neil was ten when the family moved to apartheid South Africa. Very little has been told about young white activists who worked with black comrades in the emerging black and non-racial trade unions. As the banned ANC-in-exile pushed to establish an underground presence inside the country, questions over political alliance were fraught. Neil and his partner Dr Liz Floyd were among a swathe of activists caught in a Security Police ‘sting’ operation. Tracing Neil Aggett’s life, in particular the years leading up to his detention, the weeks of interrogation, and the inquest into his death, the book reveals the extraordinary impact his life and death had on those around him. Neil’s mother was the author’s cousin. Poignant personal stories run through this fully-referenced biography of a stoic, stubborn, principled thinker who became a militant yet gentle activist. They include the rift with his dominant father who later ploughed his savings into his son’s inquest to try and get the truth from the state he had previously trusted. George Bizos, Nelson Mandela’s lawyer and friend who led the Aggett’s legal team, offers the Foreword.