By Vic Alhadeff July 29, 2021, 3:10 pm Edit South African police beat African women with clubs in Durban in 1959, after the women raided a beer hall in protest against police cracking down on their home-brewing activities. Photo: AP Photo MY wife and I lived in a modest apartment block in the Johannesburg suburb of Yeoville in the 1980s. At 6pm every evening a nightwatchman came on duty. His name was George and he sat in a corner of the foyer for 12 hours, his responsibility being to keep us safe. He had done this unfailingly for three years. One evening, George didn’t show up. A black man in his 50s, he had been arrested. His crime – not having his identity card, called a pass, in his possession when arbitrarily stopped by a policeman.