Sheena Duncan, who received the freedom of the city from Grahamstown for her work with the Black Sash during the 80s, died peacefully in her sleep last Tuesday at the age of 78.
Sheena Duncan, who received the freedom of the city from Grahamstown for her work with the Black Sash during the 80s, died peacefully in her sleep last Tuesday at the age of 78.
She had cancer and had been suffering for some time. Duncan’s mother was a founding member of the Black Sash and Duncan was National President of the organisation twice.
She became patron of the Sash after stepping down as the first Chair of the Black Sash Advice Office Trust in May 2002.
A former Director of the Grahamstown Black Sash Advice Office, Rosemary Smith remembers Duncan’s character.
“She was fun, large, she had a rich voice, she smoked and loved whiskey.” Smith says that Duncan would take a problem and think of fresh angles to challenge a situation.
According to Priscilla Hall of the Black Sash, Duncan’s work in showing Grahamstown and surrounding communities how to strategise against forced removals during apartheid showed “how invaluable her firm hand was”.
Smith related the event of the one-day workshop against forced removals that Duncan held in Grahamstown in November 1983.
Nine communities attended and it was revealed that the most pertinent forced removal was affecting the Mgwali and Wartburg communities.
They were confronted with officials who claimed that these villages were on Ciskei land after independence in 1981.
The communities were convinced that it was the land of the Republic of South Africa and resisted being relocated to Frankfurt resettlement area in which 8 000 people were in the ‘White Corridor’ and physically under threat.
Duncan investigated who the land belonged to and put the communities in contact with the Legal Resource Centre to hold a court case. It was confirmed that the land belonged to the republic.
Hall said, “Sheena’s contribution enabled the villagers to ride out the period of forced removals.”
Smith remembers Duncan’s thoughts of Grahamstown: “She used to say, it’s such a remote place to get to and you never know what the weather will be like.”
One particular image that she recalls is of Duncan sitting on the steps of Grahamstown’s Supreme Court after their meeting had been banned.
“There was no ‘side’ to her,” Smith says. She commented on Duncan’s ability to easily adapt to different situations.
Duncan worked in the Black Sash’s Johannesburg Advice Office and visited and helped out all over South Africa.
“In the 1980s, she used to ring Grahamstown’s Advice office every week to ask who and how many people had been detained,” says Smith.
“She used to say that because they could not write down their problems, they had excellent memories to remember them and Duncan would help them to think out strategies.”
She also remembers how Duncan would always sit next to the person she was talking to in order to be closer and share the same space instead of sitting across a desk
. “She was able to tumble to things before they even happened,” Smith says. “She was a wonderful person.”
