As the political environment changed dramatically, what would become of those old warhorses − some would say Trojan horses − of the Charterist tradition, the Indian Congresses?

Many activists within these organisations had paid a heavy price to keep the Freedom Charter in the public domain, helping to build the ANC's underground structures and supporting the armed struggle. Others saw their professional careers ruined as they suffered detentions and banning orders. They also faced down criticism for persisting with the ‘I’ in the NIC. From within the very organisation they had helped to build, the UDF, they faced the slur of cabal. Through all this they had defended the NIC/TIC as a surrogate of the ANC and representative of its ideals.

The unbanning of the ANC in February 1990 caught NIC leaders on the horns of a dilemma. They had sacrificed their lives for this moment, and many became members of the ANC legally for the first time. But what about the Indian community as a whole? How best to carry Indian South Africans into the new dispensation that was fraught with ongoing violence and threats of re(dis)tribution?

Differences of opinion emerged within the NIC once the ANC was unbanned. Mewa Ramgobin was one of the first to enter the fray, stating in a 1990 interview that the unbanning of the ANC meant that ‘there may be a limited lifespan for the NIC, especially as the democratic movement is now seeking to build non-racial constituencies for the creation of a future non-racial, democratic and united South Africa’.

In a speech delivered at an NIC meeting in Ladysmith on 29 April 1990, Ramgobin warned: