JOIN USZuma presented the Order of Luthuli in Silver to Ismael Chota Meer's daughter Shamim Meer at the Presidential Guest House here.
The Gandhian scholar was awarded yesterday for "his excellent contribution to a non-racial and democratic South Africa, struggle for liberation, workers' rights and for the formation of Natal Teachers Union."
Meer, who died in 2000 at the age of 82, was married to renowned activist and sociologist Prof Fatima Meer, who died of a stroke last year. The couple had been ardent Gandhians and veteran pioneers of the freedom struggle together with such leaders as Yusuf Dadoo and Nelson Mandela, who was a close family friend.
Despite consistent bans by the apartheid government on both Meer and his wife, he established a successful legal practise in Verulam, north of Durban. An active participant in many demonstrations, including the Indian Passive Resistance campaign of 1946 against unjust apartheid laws, Meer's firm conviction on closer Indian and African cooperation led to him playing a major role in the pact drawn up a year later between Dadoo of the Transvaal Indian Congress, G M Naicker of the Natal Indian Congress and A B Xuma of the African National Congress.
Shamim Meer said her family was proud of the fact that the government had chosen to recognise her late father's struggle and commitment on Freedom Day, but had mixed feelings about another battle which remained to be won in South Africa – that of the fight against poverty, unemployment and the lack of service delivery.
Now in its 16th year, the National Orders were bestowed in a range of areas for the first time in conjunction with Freedom Day celebrations.
"We are holding this ceremony on this important day because the National Orders recognise the highest contribution that individuals can make to the success or well-being of this country and her people," Zuma said.
The National Orders are the highest awards bestowed by the President of the Republic of South Africa upon citizens and members of the international community who have contributed meaningfully to the development of South Africa.
In 2002, the highest honour for foreign nationals, the Order of the Companions of O R Tambo in Gold was awarded to Mahatma Gandhi for "his exceptional contribution to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and for a just world."