Paul Trewhela

Paul Trewhela (born 1941) is a South African journalist{{sfn|Pogrund|2000|p=133-}} and a former political prisoner.{{sfn|Anon|1975}}

Early life

Trewhela was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1941, educated at Michaelhouse in KwaZulu-Natal.

Career

Trewhela worked in underground journalism with Ruth First and edited the underground journal of Umkhonto we Sizwe, Freedom Fighter, during the Rivonia Trial. He was a political prisoner in Pretoria and the Johannesburg Fort as a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) in 1964–1967, separating from the SACP while in prison. In exile in Britain, he was co-editor with the late Baruch Hirson of Searchlight South Africa, which was banned in South Africa.

In regard to his ideology Trewhela has stated: "I was a Trotskyist, and, yes, a 'committed Marxist' through to the end of working on Searchlight South Africa. But I'm not a Marxist any longer. Marx's conception of the 'dictatorship of the proletariat' gave a licence to totalitarian dictators of all kinds, and Marxism's economic determinism and alleged 'scientific' philosophy are way off beam. I'm much more aware than before how fragile are the little shoots of civil society, and how they need nurturing, and how easily they are crushed by very ideological people who claim to have a universal panacea, usually violent. They're the dangerous people in southern Africa, as Robert Mugabe and his regime have shown."[http://abahlali.org/node/6351/ "In search of light: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and SWAPO"], Abahlali baseMjondolo.

Honours

In 2007 he received the St Michael Award from his alma-mater, Michaelhouse.[https://web.archive.org/web/20141006123215/http://www.michaelhouse.org/Files/ST%20MICHAEL%20AWARDEES%20-%20amended%20may%202013.pdf St Michael's Awardees]

Publications

{{cite book|last=Trewhela|first=Paul |authorlink=Paul Trewhela|title=Inside Quatro: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and SWAPO|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VvrmFLfggboC&pg=PA127|year=2009|publisher=Jacana Media|isbn=978-1-77009-776-6|chapter=Chapter 8 The Problem of Communism in Southern Africa|display-authors=0}}
{{cite book|last=Trewhela|first=Paul |title=Inside Quatro: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and SWAPO|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VvrmFLfggboC&pg=PA1|year=2009|publisher=Jacana Media|isbn=978-1-77009-776-6|display-authors=0}}
{{cite journal|last=Trewhela|first=Paul|title=Swapo and the churches: an international scandal|journal=Searchlight South Africa|volume=2|issue=3|year=1991|pages=65–88|url=http://www.disa.ukzn.ac.za/webpages/DC/sljul91.8/sljul91.8.pdf|display-authors=0|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006125525/http://www.disa.ukzn.ac.za/webpages/DC/sljul91.8/sljul91.8.pdf|archive-date=6 October 2014|df=dmy-all}}
{{cite book|last=Trewhela|first=Paul |title=Yengeni, Schreiner and the Ethics of the ANC|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dd-6oAEACAAJ|year=2008|display-authors=0}}

Notes and references

{{cite book|last=Pogrund|first=Benjamin |authorlink=Benjamin Pogrund|title=War of Words: Memoir of a South African Journalist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LhUjXXNTz50C&pg=PA133|year=2000|publisher=Seven Stories Press|isbn=978-1-888363-71-5}}
{{cite book|last=Clingman|first=Stephen |title=Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_9TgnnsoqsC&pg=PA337|date=15 September 2011|publisher=International Pub Marketing|isbn=978-0-86486-677-6}}
{{cite journal|title=Torture in South Africa| journal=Transition|issue=50|year=1975 |edition=October 1975–Mach 1976|pages=52–57|publisher=Indiana University Press|jstor=2935000|author=Anon| doi=10.2307/2935000}}