Renee Alberts

From Greenlevel.org

With school friend Thecla Schreuders, I joined every known SRC sub-committee when arriving on campus in 1983. Eventually sticking it out in Women's Movement, despite a penchant for very short skirts. At my first Womens Movement meeting I was horrified to find everyone sitting on the floor which was impossible for me to do given the shortness of my skirt. Terry Page and Christine Burger were the Women's Movement chairs. The Varsity office also become a favoured hang out(more sexy men per light table than any other sub-committee). Despite attempts to remain a frivolous trendy, I landed up living in 209 Lower Main Road and within months was well on my way to being a serious leftie. In 1984 I became Varsity editor with Thecla and within a couple of months we had not only had our first 2 editions banned but were facing a huge defamation claim from Buthelezi for calling him a murderer. Luckily Andy Durbach brought in the George Bizos big gun. We threatened to call witnesses from Ngoyi(?) campus to prove that Buthelezi was indeed a murderer (exception to defamation: truth in the public interest. After publishing a tiny apology and paying him R100 we were off the hook.

After Varsity, I stood for the SRC for 2 terms and become Projects Officer in 1986 with Janine Rauch. Both of us found Projects difficult and lied to each other about whether we had phoned the people on our list. One memorable meeting we guerilla theatred that branch had detained half of Nusas and freaked everyone out completely. This was the year that Viv called me to a secret meeting at Peter's Pancake Place and asked if I would join the underground. I was then instructed to meet my handler in the Leslie who would be wearing a green woolen scarf. I was expecting a big black guy but Chris Giffard walked in with a green woolly scarf [From Chris G: I remember the meeting and Ren in the Leslie quite well, and the importance of some or other item of clothing: trying to recall the scarf!!! I still read Le Carre]. Our first cell consisted of Cameron and Michael and I and we diligently read Le Carre and practiced our secret meeting skills. [From Tony K: Ren, having been through an equivalent process a couple of years earlier, I remember thinking how the absolute giveaway that anyone in Observatory had been recruited was a sudden interest in reading Le Carre, or Kim Philby's 'My Secret Life.'] In 1988, I became National Organiser (NUSAS HO) in the second unity head office (Kim and I for the racial capitalists, Steve, Meryl and Peter for freeway house)

From Thecla: Renee's clothes were legendary, as were her hairstyles. And she also always got the cute guys, whereas I just pined. Oh sorry, this is meant to be about imporotant things - politics, the struggle, etc. I was amazed she 'did' Women's Movement - she was so NOT a feminist (but she did have a lot of sisters, which maybe explains it). I was appalled by WM, though I stuck it out for a while. The first meeting we attended (for the first few months we stuck together like limpets, viva invertebrates viva), they held a discussion about vaginas and how shocking it was that most women didn't know what their own look like. My consciousness was still very low at the time but I was nevertheless able to reflect that perhaps this issue wasn't at the top of the minds of those women in KTC whose shacks were being destroyed.

Thecla Schreuders and Renee Alberts at the 1983 NUSAS Congress