Monday, 30 January 1899
Dr Max Theiler, first South African to receive the Nobel Prize, was born in Pretoria in 1899. He studied medicine at the University of Cape Town’s Medical School from 1916 to 1918. He graduated at the London School of Medicine in 1922. Theiler joined the Rockefeller Foundation in 1930. It is while there that he did extensive research on yellow fever and other viral diseases. He headed the research team that produced the vaccination for yellow fever. It was this achievement that led to him being awarded the Nobel Prize. He was the first ever South African to receive the prize. Theiler retired from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1964 and joined Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, as professor of epidemiology and microbiology. Theiler died in 1972. He had married Lillian Graham and they had one daughter.
Friday, 30 January 1948
Mohandas (aka Mahatma) Karamchand Gandhi (aged 78) was killed by a radical Hindu, Nathuram Godse. Godse is believed to have thought him too tolerant towards Muslims and to have had links to Hindu extremists Mahasabha and Narayan Apte. These and many other Hindus held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting on a payment to Pakistan. Gandhi was a major spiritual and political leader in India and the pioneer of Satyagraha (resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience), founded on a policy of non-violence. He came up with the Satyagraha philosophy and led his first Passive Resistance campaign in 1906 in South Africa where he lived as a young man. On his return to India Gandhi led national campaigns for human rights and the independence of India from Britain. He was shot and killed while taking his nightly public walk through the grounds of Birla Bhavan in New Delhi, India. Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were executed on 15 November 1949. Millions of people around the world mourned with India and contributed to creating the legend of the Mahatma.
Friday, 30 January 1953
Socialist and labour activist, Emil Solomon (Solly) Sachs, left South Africa to settle in England on this date. He stated that his position in South Africa had become untenable. This move followed after two notices in terms of the Suppression of Communism Act (1950) had been served on him on 19 May 1952 and his arrest on two occasions during the same month. He was sentenced to six months’ forced labour, suspended for two years, on both charges. Sachs continued his opposition to the South African government in England.
Friday, January 30, 1953
Paul Emile Rossouw, the first athlete in the world to jump higher than 2.13 m at the age of 16, was born in Springs.
Friday, 30 January 1981
Several people were killed in Operation Beanbag, an attack by the South African army on the planning and control headquarters of the African National Congress (ANC) in Matola, a suburb of Maputo, Mozambique. Three houses were attacked and largely destroyed. Portuguese engineer, Jose Ramos, was “mistakenly identified” by the South African forces as Joe Slovo, one of the raid’s main targets, and was shot at a roadblock. Numbers of people killed vary between twelve and twenty-four in different sources. Three were allegedly abducted. The raid was planned by Section A of the security police, headed by Colonel (later General) Jac Buchner and assisted by Major (later Brigadier) Callie Steyn of Military Intelligence (MI).
Wednesday, 30 January 1985
The Pretoria Supreme Court ordered the South African Medical and Dental Council (SAMDC) to hold an inquiry into the conduct of the two doctors who treated Steve Biko for five days before he died. Prior to the Supreme Court order and two years after his death, SAMDC disciplinary committee found there was no prima facie case against the two doctors who had treated Biko shortly before his death. In February 1982, dissatisfied doctors had presented a petition to the Council seeking another inquiry. However, this was rejected on the grounds that no new evidence had come to light. Biko’s death on 12 September 1977 caught the attention of the international community, which increased the pressure on the South African government to abolish its detention policies and called for an international investigation into the causes of his death. Even close allies of South Africa, Britain and the United States of America, expressed deep concern over his death.
Friday, 30 January 1987
On 30 January 1987 the Minister of Law and Order issued a message to the newspapers denying Carte Blanche, an investigative television programme permission to quote exiled president of the African National Congress (ANC) Oliver Tambo. The communication from the office of the minister stated that: “Please note that the Minister of law and order has not given Carte Blanche permission to quote Oliver Tambo. He has given permission to quote freely from three particular newspaper articles which appeared in the New York Times, New York Post and the Wall Street Journal.” The message suggests a softening up on the part of the NP government. This may have been the result of the countrywide unrest that marked much of 1986, leading to the declaration of yet another state of emergency. The tone of this message, giving permission to newspapers to quote articles from the three American publications, was indicative of the pressure the apartheid government was feeling in 1987. Events in 1988, culminating in the removal of P. W, Botha in 1989 and the arrival of F. W. De Klerk were a prelude to the negotiated settlement that followed.
Sunday, 30 January 2005
The Sunday newspaper Sunday Independent reported that the special mixture prescribed by SA Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to fight HIV/AIDS, could be a recipe for disaster. The African potato, with a mixture of garlic, onions and virgin olive oil, was advocated by the minister as an immune-boosting combination for people living with HIV and Aids. The minister’s prescription was widely disparaged in the medical and media fraternity alike.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
World Leprosy Day: Hundreds of representatives from leprosy non-governmental organisations gather in South Africa from 30 January to 3 February for the African Leprosy Congress coordinated by Wits to discuss if A World Without Leprosy is a realistic, achievable goal. World Leprosy Day takes place on the last weekend in January each year.
All information taken from http://www.sahistory.org.za/this_day/30/01
