TRIBUTE TO JEFF MARISHANE

Selby Vusimusi Moyo Activist

By Vusumzi Moyo
Activist

I don’t think I am the only one who was secretely shocked that a “smoukser” (that’s what we called sellers in trains) would be one to rouse us up to be rebels! Jeff Marishane was the kind of person you wouldn’t have suspected could lead a student protest.

His quiet demeanour misled many who were to learn that indeed, still waters do run deep! We were to learn that truth when he joined a cohort of young leaders of the June 16, 1976 movement which, without argument, contributed immensely towards the political dispensation we currently live in.

It was on the morning ofJune 21, 1976 when Jeff addressed students at Mamelodi High School.

Many will remember this day as one of awakening of the youth in this location, where organisations such as the Students Christian Movement (SCM) were taking root in the secondary schools.

It was difficult to suspect that there were equally activities of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), members of which were working hard in the underground.

Mamelodi had its own share of representation of members of the South African Students Organisation (SASO) who got identifiable mostly during the uprisings.

These mentors had in fact infiltrated church youth clubs and other organisations with only few youngsters suspecting what was happening to their consciousness.

We got to know notable names like Moss Chikane who was highly involved in BlackCommunity Projects (BCP), Kanakana Matsena who was chairman of the BCP and a member of the cultural group Dashiki which was later renamed Grassroots; and Dixie Makena among many others.

These BCM members have established cells which were engaged in adult literacy and political education generally.

It is this environment that Jeff Marishane and others was shaped. So disciplined was this group that whatever was planned for June 21 was known only among them.

The planning and coordination of activities for that day produced an explosive situation which the security agencies found it difficult to control.

Even if they knew who instigated the boycotts in Mamelodi they couldn’t find him.

Jeff was as elusive as he was quiet. It seems that his role was merely to light the fire and dash away.

For, after that morning of his address at assembly at Jeff disappeared, and was later whispered to be in exile.

Unfortunately those who planned the June 21 activities with him and who became the Mamelodi Students Representative Council (MSRC) were arrested in a swoop one morning.

However, this did not break the enthusiasm of the students who immediately proceeded to form a successor which they called simply Patriotic Front (PF), which immediatelywent underground.

This was testament to the fact that Jeff, in his quiet way, planted a seed of determination and resistance among those who came in contact with him.

Unfortunately, Jeff, like most young men and women who ignited that spark of the revolution, came back despondent from exile.

Those in government are continually neglecting them; sometimes one could think authorities wish for these returnees to just die and get everything over with.

Once this happens, they will have less burdens to remind them of the revolution that still awaits us.

And everyday we bury these former fighters for freedom after a long struggle to uplift their lives dying forlorn and destitute.

I will remember Jeff Marishane as a quiet warrior who opened the eyes of many who were asleep while their world was darkening.

A man who who sacrificed his youth for service towards something as noble as freedom.

Despite his suffering, he still wished to see his fellow Africans heading towards a world that would change for the better.

We wish him a new beginning on the other side as he takes his last bow.

Soldier on, dear warrior. May you travel well, fighter…