John Aitchison
| Last Updated: |
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August 4, 2025 |
| Residing In: |
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Durban, KwaZulu-Natal South Africa
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| Education: |
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I was born to Harold Aitchison and Phyllis Jacques, in Durban, Natal on 2 June 1944. I was brought up by his grandparents as my mother passed away a few days after I was born.
I attended Durban Preparatory High School for the last three years of primary education and then Durban High School for my Secondary education. I then went to Pietermaritzburg to study at the University of Natal and remained in Pietermaritzburg until relocating to Durban in 2011.
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| Spouse/Partner |
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Jennifer Growdon
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| Children/Family: |
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Kate, Peter, Lucy and James |
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My career started somewhat late because of what happened when I was at university. In my first year I started teaching in a (illegal) student run night school for black Africans (at the time there was not even a high school in Pietermaritzburg going up to matric for African students), which further opened my eyes to the evils of apartheid. I was an active member of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), where I was elected the Secretary for Welfare in 1964 and Head of NUSAS on the Pietermaritzburg campus in 1965. I took part in students' protests against the draconian security legislation (Sabotage Act of 1962 and 90 days detention of 1963) and in 1963, in my second year of studies, joined the Liberal Party of South Africa. I played an active role in the Liberal Party as well as playing a key role in exposing the forced ethnic cleansing removal of black people from freehold land they owned in Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal).
I was arbitrarily banned for five years (no charges, no trial) under the Suppression of Communism Act in May 1965 and briefly after my release in 1970, banned again for another five years from 1971 to 1976. I also served a period of imprisonment for breaking the banning orders. This prevented me from going to be trained as an Anglican minister.
So my career only started in 1976, fourteen years after I left school.
I first worked in a number of distance education and adult education programmes including the SACHED Trust and Theological Education by Extension College (of which I was one of the founders) and then lectured in Theology and Biblical Studies at the Federal Theological Seminary and the University of Natal. I was ordained as a deacon in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa in 1976 and served as an Education Officer for the Diocese of Natal from 1979 to 1981.
In 1981 I joined the University of Natal as Deputy Director of the Extra Mural Studies and Extension Unit in Pietermaritzburg and retired from the University of KwaZulu-Natal at the end of 2007 where I had been Professor of Adult Education as well as Head of the School of Education there.
In April 1981, he joined the University of Natal’s Centre for Adult Education, of which he became Director in 1992. Among the projects I was involved in at the Centre were training courses for adult educators at certificate and post-graduate diploma levels and initiation of academic support programmes for disadvantaged students. I was also involved in research projects regarding farm schools, school dropouts, non-formal education and adult basic education.
I initiated a newspaper supplement called Learn with Echo that was itself in a weekday supplement called Witness Echo the Pietermaritzburg newspaper the Natal Witness (now Witness). It has continued from 1990 until 2017 when the billionaire owners of NASPERS closed it, though its costs were minimal. It was a four pages of material in both Zulu and English and, though aimed at adults with low levels of formal education, the publication was frequently used in schools.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, my and the Centre were noted for the analysis of the political violence in the Natal Midlands and for exposing its dynamics. I authored a large number of publications, from the period 1988 to 1994, on the conflict (civil war/state dirty tricks). The Centre for Adult Education provided an enormous amount of accurate information and analysis of the conflict and helped demystify the apartheid state's propaganda on "black on black" violence.
I was one of the main movers that led to the Joint Staff Association of the University of Natal to be the only university in South Africa to formally align itself with the United Democratic Front (UDF).
Since retirement I have had several contracts doing policy and survey research for the Departments of Basic Education and Higher Education and Training. I oversaw the development of the Mathematics workbooks now used in all state schools. I also served briefly as Director of the Association for Rural Development, the authoritative land rights NGO is South Africa.
Currently serve as a deacon at the Anglican Church of St John the Divine in Durban and Convenor of the Anglican Church's Commission on the Diaconate.
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| Hobbies/Interests: |
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Road running, hiking. Completed six Comrades marathons and did a 100 km trail race in the United Kingdom in July 2014 at the age of 70.
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| School Story: |
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In 1960 I was part of the cast of Hamlet and provided six beers that were duly quaffed in the entrance scene where the troupe of players arrives. Drinking alcohol under the very eyes of the Principal and parents had a certain panache. We were duly snitched on by some boarders and flogged. Clearly I had trouble with obeying the rules of authorities. |
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