JOHANNESBURG (PTI): The South African authorities have refused to issue a stamp to commemorate the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi’s experience at the Maritz burg railway station on June 7,1983 when he was ordered off a “whites only” coach,
The Gandhi memorial committee, which is organizing the commemoration event, had written to the postal authorities to honor Mahatma who found the philosophy of “passive resistance” in South Africa.
The chairman of the Gandhi memorial committee, Dasrath Bundhoo, said the decision of the postal authorities was “racist.”
A senior postal official in Pretoria, Hermany Steyn said, “basically, we do not depict people in our stamps. The only person who is featured on our stamps iS the state president.”
What will an additional stamp do for Gandhi? Already more than 60 stamps have been issued in his honor throughout the world,” Steyn asked reminding that. Gandhi, India’s father of nation, was not a South African.
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 7, 1992
