Marching against apartheid education

I am the fifth from left in this 1990/91 Education march: students linked arm-in-arm do a toyi-toyi dance during a march to the Houses of Parliament. Student leaders handed over a memorandum to an official of the State President's office calling for the creation of one education department and for the president's intervention in the improvement of facilities. — with Luvuyo Zantsi, The current deputy minister of police, Bongani Michael Mkongi,is the tenth person from left. the late Ntuthuzelo Ngwane, Sipho Kussie, Bhabha Dantile, Bhabha Ntshobane, Mcebisi Tshandu, Patrick Lakabane and Songezo Mjongile, who was to be the Western Cape province secretary for the ANC at Parliament of South Africa around 1990/1.

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Paarl Uprising 1962

Growing up in Mbekweni I got used to being associated with the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC/Poqo) when visiting other townships. This is because Paarl has been viewed as a PAC stronghold since the 1962 Paarl uprising that was led by that organisation. The history of the PAC struggles can not be told without mentioning Paarl 1962. That was when a mass uprising consisting of hundreds of men took place. They marched in the morning of November 22 from Mbekweni and Langabuya to town with the intent of attacking the police station and prison. The Late Minister of Justice in the ANC led government Dullar Omar recalled this event when accepting an award for Human Rights in 2004. Omar who, in 1963, was one of the lawyers who were to defend the men recalled that: “ The PAC was particularly active in Paarl. Suddenly hardly without any notice the so-called Paarl riots (the Poqo uprising) exploded on the South African scene. These poor migrant workers had had enough. They marched through...

Arriving in Germany

I left South Africa on July 31, 2012 and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on the morning of August 1 on what was my first trip overseas. I went there as part of a group eleven professionals from Southern Africa. There were four South Africans, three Zambians, two Zimbabweans, one person each from Swaziland and Malawi. I was the only one from the Western Cape and the other South Africans were based in Gauteng. The majority in our group, seven in total, were economists. The group varied in age from just over twenty years to just over fourty. We were part of a one year program called the International Leadership Training in Regional Economic Development and Trade. Four months of our time in Germany was to be spent as interns in different companies and organizations. The program is organized and hosted by the Deutsche Gesselschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GI...

Bafana 'Gees' (06-2010)

The Bafana “gees” has really gripped South Africa. It is heartening to see the patriotism that is expressed through the many South African flags that adorn cars and houses. The green and gold shirts declare in no uncertain terms where the loyalty of the nation lay/lied. It does not matter that the quality of the tee-shirt varies from genuine to imitations of the fakes. My employer is responsible for the two that I have. Employers are also into the Bafana spirit. Employees are getting time-off from work to watch the Bafana games. Some employers (like mine) bought t-shirts for their employees and some spent a lot of money on match tickets. The controversy on the amount that government departments have spent on match tickets is at this stage not dampening the spirit. I guess we will deal with it later. The national broadcaster – the SABC, played its role in psyching up the nation and rallying it around Bafana Bafana. It has been exciting to wake up to presenters who are...

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