Africa-Press – South-Africa. A young boy with big dreams of a better South Africa, Smithy Pillay joined the activist movement in the 70s as a teenager and died a hero to many he served and saved through his 60 years.
Hailing from Greenwood Park – a suburb just north of Durban – Pillay made his way from a young activist fighting for freedom during apartheid to a highly esteemed senior intelligence and security operative.
Friends, comrades and family paid tribute to Pillay who died on Sunday night at a Durban hospital.
Close comrade Ashwyn Govind – who was 11 years his junior – said he first met Pillay during the ANC conference held at the University of Durban Westville in 1991 – the first since its unbanning.
“We actually worked security at that conference together under Moe Shaik. It was the start of a long and fulfilling friendship,” Govind said.
Described as a humble being with an uncanny ability to interact and communicate with anyone at various levels, Pillay was often the first point of call in liaising between security structures, ANC leaders and police units.
His communication gift, as his friends called it, saw Pillay play a vital role in ensuring the safety of ANC leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Ahmed Kathrada whenever they visited KwaZulu-Natal.
Pillay was part of the Department of Intelligence and Security in the Southern Natal ANC structures at the time.
This ability to communicate and interact also saw Pillay being called to Gauteng when the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC, Chris Hani was assassinated.
Govind said that Pillay was a close friend to Hani and his family and often enjoyed playing with his children while providing security services during his visits to the province.
Govind and Pillay were then called on to manage the security communications and strategy around Hani’s funeral.
“Smithy was responsible for the security communications and strategy at Chris Hani’s house while I was in charge of the same at FNB stadium.
“Smithy just had this gift, a methodical mind and the ability to communicate with people like no other,” Govind said.
It was with this very same gift that he was able to negotiate the release of Callie and Monique Strydom – a South African couple who were kidnapped while on holiday in Malaysia in 2000.
At that time, Pillay was First Secretary at the South African High Commission in Malaysia and the head of the intelligence station there.
The Strydom’s were taken captive, along with 19 other hostages – many of them tourists from all over the world – by the Abu Sayyaf Muslim rebel group.
The hostages were taken to the remote island of Jolo in the southern Philippines where they were kept in a jungle for four months.
Speaking to IOL on Monday, Monique could not hold back tears as she remembered Pillay as their angel on Earth who masterminded an incredible strategy to save them from their captors.
She said it was a difficult negotiation between the Muslim rebel group and those who were trying to save them, “but it was Smithy’s plan who got us out of there”.
“We met when we were finally released and placed on a plane to Tripoli. I can still remember Smithy came to sit with the ladies and he says to us ‘I am your bodyguard, nobody will get you again’.
“He and the team went beyond the call of duty. Smithy really cared for us all. To me, he is the symbol of goodness,” Strydom said.
His illustrious political duties never led him astray from his homegrown roots though. Pillay’s brother, Cobbs said he returned to Greenwood Park where he lived until his sudden death.
He was also a spiritual man who started the Sai Baba movement in his hometown.
“Judging by the non-stop calls and messages I have been receiving since his passing, I can tell you he was a very popular person.
“He was a simple guy known in the (Operation) Vula structures of the ANC and serving among the giants,” he said.
“We dip our flag in memory of him. He was an excellent human being and will be missed sorely,” said Moe Shaik who served with Pillay.
“I remember him as a very dedicated member of the ANC and of our security department in Southern Natal. His contribution to the struggle for freedom and democracy will be recorded in the annals of our history. May his revolutionary soul rest in eternal peace,” wrote ANC National Executive member Jeff Radebe.
Former South African high commissioner to Malaysia, Lindiwe Mabuza said she always thought highly of Pillay because of his contributions to the country and especially when they worked together in Brunei and the Philippines during the Strydom’s hostage crisis.
“Diligent and principled, he carried out assignments with honesty, efficiency and patriotism. Thanks for the outstanding work Smithy did in being the eyes and ears of our country, government and people around the world.
May eternal peace be with him and perpetual light shine upon him. Rest in peace Comrade,” Mabuza wrote.
At the time of his death, Pillay was active civil society mobilisation in Durban.
IOL
