I WAS born and brought up in the green rolling sugar fields of Tongaat, now oThongathi. We lived in a wood-and-iron house with communal services before we moved into a council flat in the suburb of Buffelsdale.
I lost my dad at the age of 13, and my mom went to work at the Whiteheads textile factory to keep the home fires burning. I suffered from asthma and had to live with my aunt in Merebank, attending Junnagarth Road Primary School and Merebank High, which was a hotbed of political activity.
I matriculated at Tongaat High School in 1974 but was considered controversial in terms of my speech-making
