James Garraway, SACHED Trust, Johannesburg 1984 – 1986. 

In writing our Biology courses, the monthly journal ‘The New Internationalist’ was one of our main sources of information, with the vagaries of big pharma and other neo-lib enterprises writ large (sometimes a bit more than more traditional textbooks). We tried to teach through taking a more critical and problematic stance on issues such as overpopulation, the green revolution and famine in Africa. Another great source of information were the Environmental Development Agency’s publications such as ‘where there is no doctor’ (or in our case, where there is no biologist) and ‘Learn and Teach’ which dealt with many of the social and environmental factors (such as mining) involved in ill health in South Africa.  

‘Leave me alone, I work at SACHED!’ I yelled at three knife-wielding black youth who had me pinned down near the Market Theatre in lower Johannesburg as I walked back from work to my car one evening in 1985. They did not let me go and relieved me of all my money, four rand. I had warned them, SACHED did not pay very much.  

I had recently left a teaching post at in Maru-a-Pula high school in Gaborone in 1983, where I taught A-level Biology, and my then friend Jean De La Harpe had told me about a possible position at SACHED, writing science materials. This seemed like a wonderful opportunity to do something positive in the then Apartheid South Africa, helping young adults to obtain a matric. The position had opened up, somewhat alarmingly I later learnt, because Rob Adam, a previous Science materials developer, had been arrested in 1981. He was accused, I believe, for plotting to bomb the Hillbrow tower under cover of researching a story for the SACHED educational magazine ‘Upbeat’. Sached was full of activists, particularly those involved in UDF work and its local subsidiary JODAC, and some of these were certainly ANC operatives.  

It was mostly alarming for me when I found out who I was partially replacing as I was just beginning my parallel career as an MK underground operative. In the beginning of 1984, my car doors were so heavy that they would almost drag you out when you opened them as they were stashed with AK47s (sadly I was unable to use this to illustrate the Physics concept of ‘momentum’). Later that year I delivered them to Bloemfontein after training with the ANC in Harare (my adult learning course: ‘clandestine communications and weapons concealment’). 

I did not do a whole lot more at that time. One job was to retrieve weapons from close to the Botswana border, where I went disguised as a British Flaneur. The concealment site looked like an abandoned archeological dig with large holes everywhere, as other units had fruitlessly searched for the concealed weapons. The concealers had obviously performed very well on the concealment part of the underground module but poorly on the communications section. Later at the end of 1986 I was sent to Cape Town to become part of the African Hinterland/operation Laaitjie large-scale arms smuggling project (this project is described in Ronnie Kasrils 2021 book ‘International brigade against Apartheid’).  

Nevertheless (thank you Mrs. Flucker!), I started work at the SACHED Trust as a science writer and editor for the Turret College Series in 1984 for three years until the end of 1986. The focus was on adult learners who for various reasons had not completed matric and could not study part-time towards certification, with some Saturday morning support tutorials. 

The mid-80’s were Halcyon days, even if it was a state of emergency. Most people I knew were working in NGOs like SACHED, for example Learn and Teach and the English Language Project, aimed at redressing the inequalities in education for the mass of SA students and workers. Taking the bus from Yeoville where many of the white NGO staff lived, was a great gossip opportunity (basically who had recently been arrested, who was sleeping with who and which band was playing at the nearby bar, Jamesons). Our offices were in central Joburg (Jorissen street?) close to other NGOs such as Learn and Teach. We were so close that we could sometimes observe their staff getting creative inhalations on the adjacent rooftops before returning to their writing tasks. It was also temptingly close to ‘Jamesons’ bar in Commissioner Street, just around the corner. 

Jamesons deserves a special mention as it strangely (for that time) held a non-racial liquor license, apparently granted to it by Paul Kruger in the last century. It was dark, subterranean (you went down a flight of steps from street level) and wonderful. That’s where the material developers would often head to on Friday afternoons to listen to the likes of the ‘Cherry Faced Lurchers’, the ‘Jazz Pioneers’ and ‘Mango Groove’. 

In writing our Biology courses, the monthly Journal ‘The New Internationalist’ was one of our main sources of information, with the vagaries of big pharma and other neo-lib enterprises writ large (sometimes a bit more than more traditional textbooks). We tried to teach through taking a more critical and problematic stance on issues such as overpopulation, the green revolution and famine in Africa. Another great source of information were the Environmental Development Agency’s publications such as ‘where there is no doctor’ (or in our case, where there is no biologist) and ‘Learn and Teach’ which dealt with many of the social and environmental factors (such as mining) involved in ill health in South Africa.  

We wanted to make Science more relevant and interesting to our adult students in order to enhance their engagement and learning. Another great source of information was the Zimbabwean ZIM SCI project which was aimed at creating low cost science kits for rural schools, and using low-cost available materials from local environments as teaching resources. One of their innovations was a low-cost, hand-held slide viewer which we included with our workbooks. Students could view slides of cells, different plants and animals and ecosystems, for example, to support and enrich their learning.  

In developing our materials we would draw on all these sources and harvest pictures and diagrams from other texts. SACHED had its own photographers to augment materials, one of whom was Lesley Lawson who also ran photography courses for materials developers. This was so that we could create some of our own visuals. We all bought E. German Praktika cameras, the cheapest and the best SLR at that time. I still have a workbook with some of my photography in it. One picture looks like a grey blob with darker shading in parts which was supposed to be an ecosystem of woodlice I had found in my Yeoville garden.  

We first wrote all our materials in longhand with double spacing to allow for editorial comments. We did not have desktop computers. We could however, enroll in the Pitmans typing course offered by Turret college. My colleague Harriet sailed through this and became an accomplished typist but I remained at two fingers and all I can recall is that one’s forearms need to be parallel to the desktop, and to keep your back straight and feet together! 

Once written we gave our materials to our editors. My first editor was enchanting. Sometimes she would lie full length on my desk, tickling my wrists while encouraging me to more clearly define what I meant by a species. Sadly, this practice was banned by my unit boss, Thakane Mbatha, after she walked in on an edit, but I think some of my best writing came from this time.  

Thereafter we would adjust our text by deleting the poorly written parts using large amounts of Tippex and correcting tape. It looked very tatty. We then would overwrite in what was hopefully a better form and send the corrected text for typing. Then came the scary part as our text was sent for copyediting to the formidable Mrs. Flucker. No tense, concord, other grammatical error, inappropriately used words or lack of cohesion and coherence would escape her notice. I think we were all at one time or another chastised for our, sometimes sloppy use of English. Thereafter the workbooks were typeset and forwarded to our resident poet, Kelvin Sole, and Joe who ran the printing department. There was such pride in holding the completed workbooks, all that hard slog and creativity finally coming to fruition. That was the best part of the whole process and an excellent reason to visit Jamesons. 

It was the decade of states of emergency and around the same time as the banning of the Rand Daily Mail by the apartheid state, Sached was also closed a couple of times for being a subversive organization. One day at work the much feared security police came to work to arrest the UDF activist Maxine Hart who then worked at Sached. These were enormous men, well over 6 feet tall with cauliflower ears and green suits (no, really). As they led her away in front of the terrified staff, I remember John Samuels, our director, stepping out in front of them. He demanded her release, loudly saying that if they take one of his staff they must also arrest him. It was a courageous and remarkable sight, very ‘David and Goliath’ (John was not a large man).  

Once a year we would have the annual general meeting of the Sached branches, from Grahamstown/Makhanda (Louise Vale), Cape Town and elsewhere. We regarded the Cape Town delegates, headed by Neville Alexander, with some apprehension. They were far more left and politically aware than many in the materials development group in Joburg, sometimes even boycotting the SAB which the materials team was not entirely comfortable with. We worried, too, that our materials approaches might be seen as too liberally-orientated.  However, I always found Neville to be supportive of the way we wrote our Science materials, often constructively suggesting new sources of ‘people’s’ science.