Raymond Arumugam Pillay was the sixth son of Velama and Poovalingham Pillay. In 1883, at the age of 17, Poovalingham Pillay arrived in Durban from the village Theni in Maduray, India.
Raymond was passionate about football since childhood, and played soccer barefooted at Spearmint Road Primary School in Durban. In 1942, he left home to find work as a waiter in Cape Town. He met Maureen and in 1949 they had their first child.
It was during this time that he was arrested, separated from his wife and child and deported back to Durban because he was working without a permit. At that time Indians were not allowed to travel freely in South Africa.
This was probably an initiating factor in his struggle for equality in work and sport. He fought tirelessly for racial integration in South African football. Before 1952, the whites-only Football Association of
SA (Fasa) was the only body affiliated to Fifa. Fifa suspended SA in 1961, therefore leaving SA soccer isolated from the rest of the world. But pressure was mounting from the black, coloured and Indian associations to form an alternative body to run soccer in SA on nonracial lines.
Therefore, the South African soccer federation was born and repeated requests were made to Fifa to recognise its existence and at the same time pressure Fifa to terminate the affiliation of Fasa, because of its discriminating practices.
It was a long struggle and sadly Raymond, who was the life vice-president of the football association of Western Province, died in 1988 and did not see the formation of Safa.
The SA Soccer Association and The SA National Football Association came together to form Safa. In July, 1992, in Zurich, South Africa was readmitted as a member of Fifa. Thanks to people like Raymond and many other Indians, the beautiful game is now played by all the young people of this rainbow nation.
* Angela Pillay, Walmer Estate.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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