Durban – Tributes poured in for political analyst and activist Protas Madlala on Wednesday.
He was remembered as an extraordinary individual who rose to fame in the 1990s for his analysis of the volatility and political intolerance in KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa.
In 1985, Madlala and his white American wife Suzanne Leclerc became South Africa’s first couple to marry legally across racial lines in an era when the apartheid regime’s ridiculous and loathsome immorality act was only starting to gather dust.
Madlala started his career as a journalist at The Mercury newspaper in Durban in the 1980s and later studied in the US where he obtained a degree in International Communication.
In 1984, while studying at the American University in Washington Madlala met Leclerc and a year later they were married in a racially-divided South Africa.
Madlala, who passed away on Friday after a short illness, will be laid to rest on Saturday, September 9, at the Saint Wendolins Catholic Parish in Pinetown.
The bill scrapping the mixed marriages act was signed into law in June 1985 and Madlala and Leclerc were married a few hours later, after the white-minority government lifted a 36-year ban on mixed marriages.
The University of Rhode Island reported that Madlala and Leclerc were cautious on the day, “although there had been talk of the South African government relaxing its laws, an official from the US Embassy had agreed to attend the wedding in case of trouble”.
“At the altar, the couple learnt their wedding night would not be spent in prison—the apartheid ban on interracial marriage had been lifted just the night before, in tacit acknowledgement of the couple’s wedding plans. Suzanne and Protas would read about it on the front page of the next morning’s newspapers, alongside the photo that accompanied headlines around the world: On Sunday, June 15, 1985, they were South Africa’s first legally-married interracial couple.”
In 1986, a year later, the Los Angeles Times reported that while the couple had been allowed to marry, they were not allowed to live together.
“A year after becoming South Africa’s first couple to marry legally across racial lines, Protas Madlala and his white American wife are living apart and thinking about leaving the country.
“While whites and non-whites can marry, the rules of apartheid still dictate where they live and work.”
Madlala’s American ex-wife Leclerc, a senior anthropologist for the Global Health Bureau at the US Agency for International Development and their four daughters, who live in the US, arrived in the country after learning of his illness.
Leclerc had told Independent Media that Madlala was brave and cared about his country and people.
“He was incredibly brave and forthright and he really wanted nothing but the best for South Africa and for democracy.
“He wanted a good life for our children and we were the first legal mixed race couple to marry in 1985
Leclerc said Madlala had dedicated his life towards the betterment of the country.
“That’s what kept him alive. It was his passion to promote human rights across colour and class.
“He had a very good heart and it always amazes me when I come back to South Africa how people speak so well about him.”
She said when Madlala worked as the CEO of eThekwini's Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda), there was a time when his employees had not been paid and he took it upon himself to ensure that those families had food on the table.
“He dipped into his own savings and got some of his family members to pitch in so that he could pay salaries because he cared about people and their lives.
“It is with a heavy heart that we lose someone like that.”