Which South African journalist was imprisoned by the first prime minister of Rhodesia to be native to the country?
The Word of a Gentleman The Word of a Gentleman (1981) (later retitled "Undercut") was the third of five novels written by Peter Niesewand, the South African journalist who spent 73 days in solitary confinement for his coverage of Ian Smith's government in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Set in the fictional former British colony of St David's Island, it has no principal protagonists beyond the corrupt trio of Claud Montrose, Alec Clifton, and Stephen Luther, but the subversive influence of the American agent Clive Lyle is progressively revealed as the story unfolds. The fate of the unjustly imprisoned Stephen Ayer and his wife Nora are the focus of many chapters (and the book opens with a quotation from Oscar Wilde's "The Ballad of Reading Gaol"); these reflect Niesewand's detention by Desmond Lardner-Burke under P. K. van der Byl and Smith, and his subsequent deportation, leaving behind his wife of three years, Nonie Niesewand (née Fogarty).
Elizabeth 'Nanna' Abrahams Elizabeth "Nanna" Abrahams (19 September 1925 – 17 December 2009) was a South African political activist and trade unionist who participated actively in the struggle against apartheid. Born in the Paarl Valley area of Western Cape Province, South Africa, Liz, as she was affectionately called, became General Secretary of the Food and Canning Workers Union (FCWU) in 1956, a duty she performed until 1964. Her commitment to the struggle brought her close to activists including Elizabeth Mafikeng, Archie Sibeko, Oscar Mpetha and Ray Alexander. She was in 1986 detained for police questioning and subsequently detained for almost three months without trial. After her retirement, Abrahams remained actively involved in the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU), and was in 1995, a year after South Africa's first democratic elections, invited to serve as a Member of Parliament. During the last years of her life, Abrahams received several awards for her contributions to the liberation movement and for her activities on behalf of the rights of the working class.