The Itinerary

By Molefe Ike Mafole

THE ITINERARY (Triumphs and Tribulations – Political and Personal Memoirs of a PAC exile and activist 1963-1992) is the autobiographical account of a political activist, whose service in the struggle almost spanned the years of Apartheid in government. Ike Mafole became conscious politically as the National Party was enacting in earnest its plethora of racist laws and policies; his own family fell victim to the mass removals in which blacks were moved from areas designated white. The mass arrests of 1963 in which many PAC activists, many of whom were his personal friends and colleagues, were rounded up and subsequently sent to long terms of imprisonment, a swoop which he escaped by stroke of luck, weighed heavily on him throughout his years in exile; almost inducing in him a monastic commitment to the freedom struggle back in his country. His love for education and self development, his passion for knowledge, continuously sharpened his understanding of his situation and the challenges at every point confronting his people; he brings with him in the narrative of his years in politics a sensibility tempered by this background. So this is not just a diary of his life, it is also an assessment and criticism of the choices made by him and his comrades at every turn of his almost thirty years in exile. His training as an academic and political researcher, his analytical powers, raise the level of the work into an intellectual resource in the general understanding of especially the years of the diaspora in the SA liberation struggle and modern world history.

The book is simply a laid back and unaffectedly informative good read.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Molefe Ike Mafole
• Release date: Feb 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005965303

Book preview

THE ITINERARY

Triumphs and Tribulations - Political and Personal Memoirs of a PAC exile and activist 1963-1992.

Molefe Ike Mafole

Copyright © 2021 Molefe Isaac Mafole

Published by Molefe Isaac Mafole Publishing at Smashwords

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Tswagare Namane and Sipho Bavuma using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.co.za

E-mail: [e-mail]

The realization of this work as a book has been made possible by Tswagare Namane and Sipho Bavuma, who having served as cadres under Ike Mafole’s leadership in exile undertook to do the project on a voluntary basis as a gesture of gratitude and respect to him. May posterity learn through his story that indeed unconditional love of country is possible. Thanks to Dr Damian Garside for the editing and Galefele M Molema for the cover work. Many thanks to Mthimkhulu Seroto and Daniel Mthimunye too for the reading.

Preface

The idea of writing my memoirs as a Pan Africanist Congress activist goes as far back as 1961 when I wanted to leave the country. Pressure was not so much at the time except for the Special Branch agent that had visited my father to inquire why I was receiving CONTACT, a liberal publication subscribed for me by Mr. Mokgoko a member of the PAC. The other pressure that motivated me to want to leave the country was education. I was then in Form Four and in that year I had not performed well. I was doing mathematics and science subjects which had proved difficult for me due to lack of career guidance on the part of the school system and our teachers who in hindsight did not seem to have been aware of career guidance, because the choice of subjects despite performance was left to the student

These were the two pressures I had at the time and they were not that urgent and I had the choice not to leave the country. In 1963 as more pressure was mounting, TO SKIP OR NOT TO SKIP became more urgent than in 1961. At the beginning of the clampdown on PAC-Poqo suspects the idea of TO SKIP OR NOT TO SKIP did not arise. I even ignored my father’s advice to go to Lesotho (Basutoland at the time) because we were still waiting for instructions from P.K. Leballo. I was at the time on the run and hiding away from the Special Branch. But as more arrests were taking place and comrades appearing in court and the charges coming out, the pressure TO SKIP OR NOT SKIP was mounting and the need to leave the country was becoming more urgent. It was after the appearance of my comrades in court and the reading of the charges that I decided that it was now time to leave the country or risk eventual arrest.

My destination was the school of refugees in Dar es Salaam - Tanzania (Tanganyika at the time) which I had read about in newspapers. I want to thank all those who helped me in the whole process and effort to leave the country. My parents at this point did not know what I was doing and where I was. I want to thank Keekilame Sekoena Sam Mafole who harboured me in his house in Katlehong Phalima Section during this period. I must also thank my other family brother and his wife Moeketsi E.D. Mafole (Foxy) who kept me at their house without knowing that I was on the run. Later he and his wife gave me money to travel to Botswana (Bechuanaland at the time); from their Dube Village home to Lichtenburg (Springbokpan and Gelugspan), then to Mafikeng and Borobadilepe in Bechuanaland; from there to Lobatsi and finally Francistown, from where we were flown to Mbeya, a border town of Tanzania, and to Dar es Salaam by bus.

Throughout my stay in Lichtenburg (Springbokpan and Gelukspan) for fourteen days I was helped and sheltered by the Mafole families. I especially want to thank Buti Mafole and his friend Mr. Morapedi (Ponkie), a well-known personality in the area who did all to organize my escape from across the South African border into Bechuanaland. Morapedi had helped many other members of the liberation movement who were on the run. Not to forget friends such as Nanabi Maleka and his friend Jarara who harboured me during my stay in Soweto and Mr. A. Maleka, a family member at whose place I stayed in Evaton. My thanks go to my parents and all those who wished me well during this most uncertain and difficult moment of my life. May I also thank all those who have encouraged and supported me morally and politically to pursue this work to the ultimate end.

In the end I must thank God Almighty for the Divine Intervention that saved my life from a major cancer operation (gastric cancer) after we buried our mother on August 6, 2005. I was admitted to the then Pretoria Academic Hospital on August 22, 2005 and operated on eight days later. I have always appreciated and recognized His interventions that happened throughout my life in their own way, at their own time and for a purpose. During this period of my illness my wife just arrived from Tanzania but missed my mother’s funeral. She was however on time to take me to the hospital and take care of the children while I was hospitalized. She took leave from work for five months to take care of me after my discharge from hospital.

May I finally thank all those friends, colleagues and comrades who came to support me while in hospital and at home during the convalescent period. My thanks also goes to my neighbours including Mrs. Batsebang Mmamope, Lebo Shupeng and my children’s teachers, Dr. Hashe and Pinkie Motsepe, who were concerned about the state of my health and did all to help me and my family in all sorts of ways when I was back home recovering.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Early Life

2. Incipient Awareness

3. Early Political Awareness

4. Interacting with Africanists and Pan Africanism

5. On the Run and in Hiding inside the Country

6. Over the Border Fence, Sprint into Bechuanaland

7. Arrival in Tanganyika – The Haven of Refugees and Freedom Fighters

8. Dar es Salaam to Leopoldville (Kinshasa) by Road, Rail and Water

9. Life in the Congo (Zaire) of Troubles and Tribulations

10. Unexpected Study Trip to the USA

11. Recall to Dar es Salaam – PAC External Headquarters

12. PAC Chief Representative to the USA and the Caribbean

13. Back to Dar - Lots of Work, Trouble and Learning

14. A Wilderness that Turned into an Oasis of Learning

15. The Final Leg of my Itinerary and Back Home

Chapter 1

Early Life

This story starts in what is geographically known as South Africa and spans a number of countries in Africa and the world. It is a story of a man who may have gone unnoticed had it not been for white minority rule and apartheid; born at the time of turmoil and grown up in turmoil. This account is the story of a generation of resistance that has lived to see and enjoy the freedom the majority suffered, sacrificed and died for.

I was born on June 5, 1940 at Doornpoort or Monyamane about 30 to 40 kilometers north of Pretoria and on the South of Walmansthal where my maternal parents lived on a white farm. My paternal parents originally came from the Free State (Vredefort). My grandfather was a Methodist evangelist who, I am told, graduated at Kilnerton in its early days, before it became a teachers’ training institution - Kilnerton Training Institution or KTI. After his graduation he was posted to Good Hope near Ga-Mphahlele in what is now the Limpopo Province. On retirement he moved to Zebediala, then settled at Lady Selborne and finally moved to Riverside or Storm in Pretoria. He died in 1945 and I was too young to know or even remember him, if indeed I had ever seen him.

I was born of working-class parents, father a professional shoemaker and mother a domestic worker. My father had worked at shoe companies such as Cuthberts, Drake, Reps, Mesman, etc. We are a big family of eight, four males and four females: Molefe (Isaac), Mampedi (Caroline), Dikeledi or Nkele (Christina), Maditse (Samuel), Motlalepula (Leah), Moshoeshoe (Nicodemus, Louis) Sefudi (Mirriam) and Ramosotho (Patrick). At the time of writing we are still all alive. I grew up known as Molefe Isaac Oliphant, a surname derived from the family totem –tlou or elephant or olifant in Afrikaans. Where this started and how this came about I never had the opportunity to find out from my father in particular. All I can do is to guess where all this came from in the context of the situation created by the apartheid system. I never felt comfortable about this as a youngster. But as I was beginning to know more about my other relatives and broadening my horizons this created dissonance in my inner person and interpersonal relations, but there was nothing I could do until I went into exile where most of us had to use undercover names.

When I registered as a refugee in Francistown, Bechuanaland I changed my name to Mafole. Many of my primary and secondary school mates knew me as Isaac Molefe (Mlee) Oliphant/Olifant, but this changed as soon as I put my foot in Bechuanaland in 1963. All I wanted to do was to recover my real identity and pride. The Mafole Clan is very big and stretches from the Free State, Vredefort, Kroonstad, Parys, Matatiela, into the Vaal, West and East Rand, SOWETO, Alexandra, Tembisa, Katlethong, Lichtenburg (Gelukspan, Itsoseng, Springbokpan, Lotlhakaneng), Brits, Rustenburg and Bapong, which is where the clan originated. My family is the only one found further north (Pretoria) because of our grandfather who was a Methodist priest posted in the Limpopo Province or Northern Transvaal at the time. He married there and that is where my father was born.

After initial primary schooling at Doornpoort north of Pretoria I joined my father and mother at Riverside (Storm) in Pretoria where I resumed my primary education at a Dutch Reform Primary School near Silverton to do beginners. We started our schooling under the trees and using stones to write the A B C…Z and 1 2 3 4 5… 100 with stones. Beginners was like pre-school because it was only after this that I began Sub-standard A and thereafter Sub-standard B before I could pass into standard one. We later moved to a newly built school known as Charles Muggs Memorial School at Eersterus with the same principal, that is, Mr. C.R. Ntuli. As far as I can remember I was doing very well in primary school. I was in competition with only two classmates, that is, Isaac Mthimunye and Piet Baloyi. The three of us exchanged the number one position in class. My Standard Six Certificate issued at the beginning of 1958 shows that I passed with a First Class.

In 1955 we were forcibly removed from Riverside (Storm along Stormvoel, near the river that separates Eersterus from Riverside) to what was then known as Vlakfontein but later Mamelodi. I still remember the conditions under which we arrived in the four-roomed house we were allocated. The windows were just holes with no window panes, no plastered floors, no plastered walls and no ceiling. The house was just like a cave or hole. My father had to do all the work to make the house habitable. There was no water in the house or on the plot. We had to fetch water from a tank installed in the street almost opposite our house. There was no toilet in the house. The toilet was situated at the far corner of the plot at the back of the house. There was no sewerage. It was the bucket system (sampungane) that was in use at the time. The location was seen by some people as hostels for married couples because we were still regarded as temporary sojourners in these areas and could be relocated or forcibly removed to the Native Reserves later called Bantustans.

The relocation to Mamelodi was part of the infamous forced removals that resulted in the loss of the little property my father and many Africans had at Riverside. At the time of writing we have yet to find the title deed to this property but despite this situation we have submitted claims under the Restitution of Land Rights Act of 1994. I grew up on this property and I still remember the white men who came to my father when they were buying or taking the property. They were two Jewish gentlemen, a Mr. Fine (who had red hair) and a Mr. Cohen. When they left my father’s property had been taken.

When I came back from exile my father was very ill and there was no time to talk about anything until his death and the issue of land restitution had not yet arisen at the time. The only thing my mother remembered was the street where we lived on (Henning Street) but as to the number of the plot or erf she could not remember. This area is now called Jan Nieman Park along Stormvoel Road. It is just across the river from Eersterus. There are now factories and shopping complexes where we used to live and play.

While property owners were unhappy about the loss of their properties because of the forced removals, the tenants were very happy. Landlords and tenants were now the same or equal because all were tenants of the municipality of Pretoria. This ended the reign of bomma-stane (Landlandies/Landlords) as they lost the income from renting. This was one of the consequences of the forced removals. The property owners as well as the tenants were now the same. This created hard feelings for the group that lost properties while the group that saw itself as having gained felt happy. Other people lost businesses and had to start from zero when they got to these new places. They now had to operate from the municipality properties. They