THE POLITICAL SITUATION IN 1976 AND BEYOND (PART 2)

Selby Vusimusi Moyo
Activist

By Selby Vusimusi Moyo
Activist

It is not easy to put it in words regarding how the year 1976 was like and that year I joined the Ribane Laka Secondary School’s debating society.

In our debates we were joined by two teachers fresh from the University of Turfloop (now University of Limpopo).

These teachers spruced up the debating teams especially on topics like “A sword is mightier than the pen” and so on, and we had to consult enlightened people in the community to gather facts that we could use to bolster our arguments regarding any topic that was up for debate.

Around that time I also joined my friends at the St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in Mamelodi East who belonged to the church’s Christian Life Group ( CLG), and on Sundays after church we would hold discussions under the guidance of some older members of the group who were university students.

These older students insisted that we should relate our discussions to our concrete situation.

In this way the proverbial scales gell off our eyes.

In Mamelodi the uprisings started started on Monday 21 June 1976 and on that day students carried placards with messages such as:

“Down With Bantu Education; Down With Afrikaans,” “Release Our Leaders; We Want Freedom.”

We were about to write an English language paper for the half-yearly exams which the invigilator was distributing among us students when suddenly there was a noise in the nearby street and looking through windows we could see marching and singing school children crossing the local Moretele River Bridge from the West side of the Mamelodi township.

Within no time we vacated the classrooms of our school and joined the singing students in the street.

When I reached home later in the afternoon I was told that one of my former primary school classmates Daniel Nkhulu Majoko had been shot and killed by police when the store nearby was being looted.

Majoko became the first victim of the uprising in Mamelodi and now to compound matters for me, my cousin Kenneth Kalunga was shot the following week by the police who threw him into their truck together with the stones that they claimed were evidence of his attack on them, yet the truth was that the police had deliberately picked up stones which happened to be at the scene where they had shot him, and planted the said stones as evidence.

Those who had witnessed the whole incident revealed that he was alive at the time he was thrown into the police truck.

While African students were being killed in the township of Mamelodi, white students from the nearby area of Koedoespoort marched in support of the uprisings but were dispersed with teargas canons; never to take to the streets again.

By the end of that same week, those who were perceived to be leaders of the students’ uprising in Mamelodi were arrested and among them were Romeo Matlala, Willie Sekgabutle, Peter Makgathulela and Reginald Kekana.

Jeff Marishane who had addressed students at the Mamelodi High School on that fateful 21 June 1976 morning and exhorting them to rise in rebellion against the apartheid regime, couldn’t be found by the police as he had left the country immediately after the historic address.

Following this swoop on student leaders which also included teachers like Mr Lekgothoane of Mamelodi High School, it was decided that a new leadership of the SRC must be established, but not be announced.

Meetings were held in the evenings near the Mamelodi East tennis court and this is where school boycotts and attacks on police and perceived informers were planned.

The SRC was however, elected at a meeting held in a veld in Mamelodi East and was dubbed “The Patriotic Front” after political developments during the anti-Rhodesia war.

At that meeting I was elected Public Officer but our group soon disintegrated when some members skipped the country while those who remained behind “operated underground” with “missions” being decided at night via messages transmitted through paintings on walls at strategic places.

On occasion we consulted with known SASO members who advised us on how to go about organising ourselves.

We formed and joined drama groups at churches and in the community.

Paul Mphaki, Martin Kgosana and I worked with the late Moss Chikane who, together with Sis Lorraine trained us as adult educators.

Other Turfloop University students would occasionally join us as guides and monitors.

But our cover was blown and the teacher at whose church we often conducted the adult education classes was intimidated by the special branch of the apartheid police to stop us from meeting at his church.

We then also started making ourselves scarce and not sleeping at our homes most of the time.

Within no time we were divided into groups that consulted with several other activists of the Black People’s Convention (BPC), including Reverend Justice Legotlo, with whom I later attended YCW conferences, Dixie Makena and Kanakana Matsena, who also convinced me to join Grassroots, a cultural group that succeeded Dashiki when its members like Lefifi Tladi left for exile and the group’s activities were suspended.

Kanakana Matsena had noticed a few of us at meetings where we were reading poems.

Through Grassroots’ conscientisation work we were able to reach many people as we travelled around to perform at numerous occasions.

People like Reverend Father Mkhatshwa helped us raise funds for Grassroots through his links to the BPC.

While activities were directed secretly, it became clear that the student leadership was weakening.

“The Patriotic Front” disintegrated as more leaders left for exile when threats of being arrested could no longer be ignored.

Grassroots also ceased its activities because group members were either under constant harassment or had opted to go into exile.

All of the youngsters in Grassroots left the country; leaving Bra Kanakana Matsena and Bra Bomba behind in the country.

This was after they had been arrested at the Sharpeville Massacre commemoration service held at the Regina Mundi Catholic Church and detained briefly at the Protea Police Station.

The police officers who were on duty that weekend defied their captain when he wanted them to take us to the John Vorster Square police station.

This as they had no justification to detain us other than that the said captain had a bone to chew with Kanakana Matsena.

It was after we had attended and performed at the founding event of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) in June 1979 that I too left for exile.

The constant surveillance by the apartheid regime’s secret service had made life unbearable for me.