The Final Push

The Final Push

Chabopye Freddy Pilusa

Published by Adam Piskorski at Smashwords

Copyright 2010 Freddy Pilusa and Makoti Ngaletsane Pilusa

Foundation for Rural Development.

Foreword Copyright 2010 by Malusi Nkanyezi Gigaba:

Minister of Public Enterprises Republic of South Africa,

ANC Youth League President (1996 – 2004)

Concept and Cover Design Copyright 2010 by Afrofusion

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Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Part 1

Chapter 1 – Reggie And the Vigilante Group

Chapter 2 – Growing Up in the Village

Chapter 3 – Tackling Inferiority and Superiority Complex

Chapter 4 – My Brother, my Comrade

Chapter 5 – Activism in the Classroom

Chapter 6 – ‘Hello Lassie, Am I so Glad to See You!’

Chapter 7 – My Father, an Unsung Hero

Chapter 8 – Surviving Torture

Chapter 9 – The Slaying of Reggie

Part 2

Chapter 10 – Welcome to Louis Trichardt Comrade

Chapter 11 – Political Education

Chapter 12 – Prison Visits

Chapter 13 – The Hunger Strike

Chapter 14 – Prison Commemorations and Protests

Part 3

Chapter 15 – Release from Detention

Chapter 16 – Rebuilding Political Structures

Chapter 17 – A Rude Introduction to Cape Town

Chapter 18 – The Final Push to Freedom

In memory of Reggie Kapa

Foreword (Top)

The eighties were a difficult and yet most thrilling period in our country. This decade that started in 1980, ending in 1990, was dubbed by the ANC, The Decade of Freedom.

This was, of course, not by mistake, but it arose from the death defying acts, indeed the heroic feats of struggle, that the oppressed people of South Africa committed in singular pursuit of their emancipation from the yoke of racial bigotry and tyranny. It was these heroic feats that rendered South Africa ungovernable and apartheid unworkable, bringing the regime to its knees, to a point where it, even with its extensive repressive machinery, held no sway or influence over the oppressed. It could intimidate or silence the oppressed no more.

The unsavoury replacement of President PW Botha with FW De Klerk and the announcements the latter subsequently made in 1989 and 1990 was, accordingly, not unexpected; nor was it a result of benevolence or a voluntary change of heart on the part of Mr. De Klerk. The apartheid regime over the destruction of which he had the unenviable task to preside had by the end of the eighties and beginning of the nineties lost all moral sway, even among its hitherto most ardent supporters in the West.

The mass upsurge in South Africa, supported by the overwhelming majority of the international community, had ensured that an alternative system was no longer only possible, but inevitable. The eighties was the last of those three most violent decades which started in 1960 after the Sharpeville Massacre and which ended in the 1990s. Naked state repression, supported by a vast death machinery and harsh socioeconomic policies, had become the order of the day. Everywhere, there were state-sponsored assassins and murderers, all intended to instil mortal fear in the hearts of the oppressed so that they did not challenge the regime.

The eighties commenced on the back of an heroic decade of the seventies, characterized by watershed events that had reinvigorated the struggle, mobilized both the South African and the international community, and instilled a sense in the hearts of the oppressed that the apartheid regime was not as invincible as it had pretended or claimed. At every quarter, the combined force of the masses had challenged the regime, inflicting more harm to its arrogance, fatally wounding its confidence.

In 1981, at its annual January 8th Statement, the ANC had declared that year, The Year of the Youth, in order to honour our youth, to salute their heroism and their dedication to the revolution, to provide them with better possibilities to accomplish their tasks for the year.

This was both a tribute to the youth heroism of the previous decade, as well as a call on them to do more in the decade ahead, given the challenges that lay ahead. Accordingly, the ANC said: History has imposed an obligation on the youth of today to occupy the forward trenches in the final assault on the bastions of racism, apartheid and colonialism.

As the late 'Malome' Moses Kotane said in 1968 in a statement to the youth of South Africa: 'At this hour of destiny your country and your people need you. The future of South Africa is yours and it will be what you make of it...' On the other hand, 'a people, a country, a Movement that does not value its youth does not deserve its future.'

When in the 1985 Statement the ANC called on the youth to make South Africa ungovernable, the youth heeded the call and seized the opportunity with both hands, displaying through their actions unprecedented daring as they once more committed heroic feats of struggle. Freddy, as I and many others came to know him in the progressive youth movement, belonged in this generation of youth that succeeded that of the seventies; that generation that the late ANC President, Oliver Reginald Tambo, OR as we fondly referred to him, called in 1987, the young lions of our revolutionary struggle.

Freddy here tells the tale of that generation in its full gamut, during the most turbulent and repressive period in our country's history, when the apartheid regime was at its most insane and brutal.

The choice that many young people in South Africa had to make whether to join the struggle or not was not ordinary. At the same time, apartheid by its very nature gave us no option but to want to partake in the struggle to defeat it. We all knew that there always lurked somewhere in the midst of your actions the possibility that you could pay the ultimate sacrifice as the price of victory.

Many of us, inspired particularly by youthful exuberance, not only did not care but always aspired for such end. After all, we belonged in a culture that honoured the dead and more so, the martyrs. Yet, we were no blood -thirsty war-mongers, just idealistic young revolutionaries who had shed all fear of death and prized freedom above everything else. For, this is indeed what the struggle demanded of the oppressed — to overcome their fear in pursuit of a higher ideal, freedom.

What made our people extraordinary was not merely their lack of fear, but their overcoming of their fear such that they seemed in the naked eye, fearless. We were just ordinary people performing extraordinary acts, in the name of humanity. However, it was not merely our lives that were or could be lost: often there were many other sacrifices, that might seem unimportant to the uninvolved and disinterested observer, but that were nonetheless vital to freedom fighters and to our parents, communities and leaders. The consequences of many of the sacrifices of that epoch are still being felt today.

These included disruptions of education through arrests and being on the run from the security police, or exile, as well as torture. Torture was simply vicious and diabolical, intended through its application to break its recipients in order to disclose information that could lead to the arrest of fellow comrades, or obstruction of the plans and activities of the movement. However, such brutality had little success over its victims; rather it instilled in them greater resolution. Of course, some genuinely caved in, not because of any malicious desire on their part to become traitors and serve the regime and betray their people, but because of the sheer excruciating pain of torture. You could never prepare yourself for torture, or even get used to it. It was plain inhuman and, consequently, many activists died or were left paralysed, with permanent scars.

Naturally, our parents were scared for our lives: we were young, idealistic and hot-headed, and the regime was brutal, heavily armed and inhuman. The force was disproportionate, but our determination ensured that this did not matter. Everywhere around us lurked the possibility of death. Indeed, over time, they relented, but not without trying to dissuade us. However, without this stubbornness of the youth, their exuberance and steadfast resolution, this freedom would have taken much longer to achieve.

Freddy takes us along with him on his journey into adulthood. Together with him, we depart in 1986 with a naive rural boy, and end up with a maturing young adult on the eve of freedom, on the verge of his attaining his law degree and at the advent of his ascendancy to national youth politics. The struggle had this effect that it forced our generation into adulthood, forcing us to carry on our youthful shoulders the difficult burdens of the nation and propel the struggle forward.

Through this book, Freddy gives us a peep into the heart of darkness and the unprecedented heroism that was necessary to bring an end to apartheid's evil. He tells a story that must be told a million times, passed down from one generation to the next, in a never ending relay of life, so that future generations may not take this freedom for granted, or the heroes, heroines and heroic feats that brought it about. Lest we forget!

Both in political activism and pursuit of education, Freddy ensured our freedom, complying with the pledge the ANC made to the youth both in 1981 and 1987 that it would raise the calibre of their leadership, to impart to them the skills that are necessary for them to carry out their tasks as the shock troops of the revolution.

It was important that the youth had to conquer and master modern knowledge and science in order to play their rightful role as the shock troops of the revolution post apartheid. For the task of constructing a new South Africa, old skills and knowledge used to bring about the apartheid system's downfall would prove totally inadequate.

This book is a must read for all who need to understand the contribution of the youth in the struggle, especially in the events leading to the demise of apartheid. The contribution of the generation of the forties is well canvassed, especially in the biographies of Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Anton Lembede.

This book is a timely intervention. Our generation owes Freddy a big thank you.

Malusi Nkanyezi Gigaba: Minister of Public Enterprises

Republic of South Africa

ANC Youth League President

(1996-2004)

Introduction (Top)

I have always held the view that my story is not unique. Most young people of my era experienced almost everything I went through. It took an African American friend, Dr Frederick Street, to convince me of the importance of telling our stories however common we may believe they are.

The eighties provided for a final push that resulted in the birth of a new country. Forces of liberation worked in unison to put pressure on the apartheid regime stretching its apparatus to a breaking point. The youth of this country were at the fore front of this final push. This book tells a story of sacrifice and bravery by rural youth. The book outlines contribution of rural youth to the struggle for freedom in the face of extreme repression and appalling living conditions.

The story is based on a recollection of real events and gives a picture of young people who were defiant, fearless and so focused on their mission that they appeared almost devoid of feelings. It is a story of young people who truly believed that they were made of steel; that they were indestructible and infallible. It is a story of young people who were prepared to pay the ultimate price in order to attain freedom.

All the characters in this book are real though in a few cases I have used fictional names to protect the identity of some of the individuals. Historical events in the book are used to provide context for the story. Much of this information is common knowledge mainly covered by the media and publicity materials from organization such as the UDF and its affiliates.

Part 1

Chapter 1 – Reggie And the Vigilante Group (Top)

"I suppose that human beings would say that arms are the most dangerous things that a dictator, a tyrant needs to fear. But in fact, no — it is when people decide they want to be free. Once they have made up their minds to that, there is nothing that will stop them." - Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

I woke up drenched in sweat as it often happened after every nightmare about Reggie. It took me a few minutes to pull myself together. I took a deep breath, a sickly smell wafting through my nose bringing my mind to the depressing reality of a police cell. Sitting up, I leaned against the cold hard wall and began to replay this latest dream. This time, Reggie and I were involved in a skirmish with the apartheid security police. Using the sparsely placed thorn trees as cover, we managed to evade several gun-shots aimed in our direction by the police.

As usual, Reggie's normally handsome face was a pattern of cuts and bruises while his t-shirt had patches of red all over it from the blood that was clearly oozing from his body wounds, some beginning to wet his black jeans. Bending to pick up more stones, I looked up at him and said, Reggie, come on, let's attack, we can beat them. Short of breath and exhausted, he merely looked at me, shook his head from side to side with a somewhat dejected and resigned look.

I'd been having this dream every night since my incarceration; with some variations, but the story line remained the same. In the dream I was always frustrated that Reggie abandoned me at crucial times in our confrontation with the enemy. This feeling seemed to come through even when I was awake, adding to my general feeling of unease.

There could have been many reasons for my daily dreams of Reggie but there was one that was most apparent. A few days before he was brutally killed by a mob of apartheid vigilantes, I had met him and warned him to be careful, urging him not to go back to his village, Mawa. There were rumours abound at the time that the police had recruited a large number of men from that village to form part of a vigilante group to counter the threat of a growing number of young people who were joining the struggle against the apartheid regime.

Comrade Moss from Ga-Kgapane Youth Congress briefed us about vigilantes in one of our political education discussions. He enjoyed giving his lectures while standing; which made it very awkward for everyone sitting on the dusty ground because he was extremely tall. He pointed out that the vigilante phenomenon was not new at all in the country. He referred to it as part of a strategy of contra-mobilisation.

He would pause for a second to let the suspense sink in before continuing. He loved throwing unfamiliar political terms at us and then spent time explaining them to us like a teacher in a class room. This earned him the nickname 'Commissar', a term popularly reserved for imminent political teachers. We enjoyed listening to him because we always learned something new from him.

It took him an entire hour to explain the contra-mobilisation strategy. The summary of it was that the apartheid regime was organizing support from black people and turning them into vigilante groups to fight against anti-apartheid activists. Vigilantes were perceived by the apartheid regime to be politically moderate and therefore essential in opposing the spreading wave of anti-apartheid activism in the country.

A large part of this strategy involved covertly providing financial, logistical and political support to these vigilante groups to ensure effective implementation of the contra-mobilisation strategy. In this way the regime hoped that when conflict between these vigilante groups and liberation organisations took place, the public would be coerced through state controlled media, to view the conflict as what came to be popularly referred to as 'black on black' violence. In this way the apartheid regime would in turn be exonerated from any blame regarding the conflict and atrocities committed by the vigilante groups on activists and other members of liberation organisations.

According to comrade Moss, the strategy of contra-mobilisation was used with success by the apartheid regime in neighbouring states such as Mozambique, Angola and Lesotho in the 1970s and 1980s. To destabilize those countries, the apartheid regime supported surrogate military forces against the progressive governments of those countries. In those instances, the surrogate