STRUGGLE HISTORIES Now that I am back in Johannesburg and read through ALL the responses to my Lusaka letter, it has become clear to me that we should tell our struggle stories. In fact we should write booklets. I thought of another experience. I skipped the country in August 1980, in fact to be precise, on August 9th, South Africas Womens Day. Age 21. I had been at Turfloop University and experienced what I later referred to as intellectual terrorism. Most of our lecturers could not make the grade at the universities of Stellenbosch, Pretoria or Rand Afrikaans. They were sent to the black universities. I had applied to the University of Natal but had been advised by the National Minister of Education, Dr Connie Mulder to go to the nearest black university, Turfloop. Angered by the intellectual terrorism there, I decided to skip the country and join MK. Well, the leadership had a different idea: go back to university because one day, we will need your skills. How profetic!! That is how I ended up at the National University of Lesotho with Adv Ngoako Ramathlodi, Vusi Pikoli, Mzimkhulu Gwentshe, Ajulo Rok, Shakes Mkhonto and others. But as we obeyed the order, we were saying to ourselves: these old people, they want us to study but we want guns to sort of the Apartheid enemy. That is why this struggle is taking so long to sort out. But the old people were right. Eventually most of us became MK soldiers. I was told that if you do not go to MK, you will always be a boy, uncircumcised !! Anyway, todays story. Somewhere in 1979 or early 1980, a parcel bomb was sent to Fr John Ormers. He was an ANC priest from Australia. He had been expelled from South Africa for his anti-apartheid activities. He had decided to join the ANC in Lesotho. The regime hated white people who joined the ANC. Racist thinking. When Fr Orsmers eventually regained consciousness, the doctor attending to him said: I am sorry to break this news to you. The bomb has blown away your right hand. Dear Fr said: not to worry Dr, I am left handed! Ok. Then the Dr said: the bomb has also destroyed your testicles. Fr said: dont worry Dr, I am a monk. On both counts the enemy has failed. Wow. The other one is about Fr Michael Lapsley. He was a member of the Society of the Sacred Mission (ssm). He came from New Zealand. His society had allocated him to South Africa. He enrolled at the University of Natal but was soon expelled from the country for being an anti-apartheid activist. He also went to Lesotho and joined the ANC. His church, the Anglican Church, removed him from Lesotho because they said that he was a danger to himself and all others around him. He eventually settled in Harare, Zimbabwe. But the enemy was hot on his persuit. He was a close comrade and friend of mine, in early 1990, I was at a conference of ANC and MDM economists at the Holiday Inn, Harare and had planned to visit with him one afternoon. The hotel was a walking distance from his house on Baker Street. I was late for the appointment. The phone in my room rang and as I picked up, there was a loud bang and silence. I rushed to his house but it was condoned off by the police. He had been bombed. I later saw him in hospital. He was in pain. Both arms blown off. One eye blown out. Today he runs a programme in Cape Town called The Centre for the Healing of Memories. He says that he has forgiven his attackers. Easy to say but those of us who have to feed him, cloth him and remember he has to go to the loo and has to wash. Its difficult. No Easy Walk to Freedom. As most of you have have said Freedom has not come easily. Indeed. I am touched by your responses to my Letter from the Taj Pamodzi Hotel, Lusaka, Zambia. Tiyende Pamodzi. The struggle for Justice continues! Amandla! Kea Rona!! baTito 6 June 2014 Killarney, Johanesburg SOUTH AFRICA.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 23:27:29 +0000
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