Obituary - Nad Murugan Pioneering Trade Unionist

Nad Murugan: Pioneering trade unionist
Published:Oct 05, 2008

He excelled as a part-time senior commissioner at the CCMA
NAD Murugan, 53, who was found hanged in Durban this week, was one of South Africa’s most militant trade unionists with outstanding negotiating, mediating and legal skills.
As a white-collar professional at the City of Durban in the 1980s, Murugan cut his teeth in trade unionism with the Durban Indian Municipal Employees’ Society, where he rubbed shoulders with blue-collar workers.
For almost a decade, he battled severe depression and alcoholism, triggered by the brutal murder of his wife Rebecca in 1992, and possibly the post-traumatic stress of the apartheid era.
Rebecca had been planning a homecoming celebration for her husband, who had completed a year-long course in labour law at Harvard University in the US, when she was bludgeoned to death by her domestic worker.
Despite this painful personal tragedy, Murugan stayed the course. After championing the grievances of poorly paid municipal workers in Durban, he moved to Johannesburg, where he excelled as a part-time senior commissioner at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
The birth of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union was to change the way municipalities dealt with workforces, reflecting Murugan’s passion — to ensure that workers enjoyed the fruits of the new nation’s march to equity.
Murugan featured in many landmark hearings, notably settling the issue of allowances and salary increases between Eskom and the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa and Solidarity trade unions, as well as disputes involving the South African Revenue Service and the Media Workers’ Association of South Africa.
Recently, back home in Durban, family members rallied around Murugan in the aftermath of another personal setback, a divorce from his second wife, Kantha Naidoo, and her emigration to Australia.
Then came a surprise call from Murugan, brimming with confidence about a new labour of love — a book about trade unionism, the new culture of conciliation, mediation and arbitration and how he viewed labour politics in a transforming South Africa.
Murugan leaves his sons, Denver and Renard.
— Marlan Padayachee