Oil Prison
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Once they were a threat to society. Once freedom was a fantasy. Twenty years ago they were extracted from South African political life. They are still here.
Headlines read: "A detention every seven minutes," "Children detained so man hangs himself," "Unrest greatest in Soweto and E. Cape areas." The country was in turmoil.
On August 4, 1986, the East Cape Herald reported a total of 1 083 of the 3 402 people listed as 'missing' country wide came from the Eastern Cape. This news story is on exhibit at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. There were hundreds from Grahamstown.
On of those people was Jonathan Walter, Regional Director of Black Sash in Grahamstown. "I wouldn't want to go through it again. Prison was tough, but I felt so fortunate to be among hard-core activists from Robin Island," says Walter, "The struggle was tough, but it was also a good learning experience." He shows his blue card with his prison number from St. Albans prison. "This is something I would like to share with my sons one day." Walter spent 18 months in detention.
Fundile Mafongosi, Director of Masifunde Education and Development Trust was the vice-president of the Black Consciousness Movement at the time. He spent three months in solitary confinement. Said Mafongosi: "It was a little bigger than a toilet. I got to exercise in a 4m by 4m yard. No newspapers. No radio." Mafongosi was told three separate times he was being released. Each time he was taken to a new police station. He eventually spent six months in St Alban's Prison. "But I do not for one moment regret my involvement with the struggle."
Marcel Burgess, freelance draughting engineer, spent more than two years in detention. "If I were to go through it again, I would. But it wasn't worth it. The effort put in by coloured people has been overlooked by those in power. It's like the struggle was only for black people. There is still a lot of racism and discrimination in this country," he says.
Georgina Adriaan, matron at St Andrews College, echoes Burgess' sentiments. "We are still invisible," she says. Adriaan was trying to help a friend in Joza when she was accused of being part of an "illegal gathering".
She was a 43-year-old mother who knew nothing about politics. "I was taken at the back of a police van to 'Rooihel' prison. I remember they also picked a young white guy who got to sit in front," says Adriaan. ("Rooihel" is the affectionate nickname for North End Prison in Port Elizabeth.)
"My eyes were opened and I began to see things. It opened up a new world for me. I could then open the minds of people in the community."
Reggie Waldick, programme coordinator at Masifunde was involved in the struggle since his high school years. He spent 14 months in St Alban's Prison. He remembers the mats they had to sleep on and the food they had to eat. Porridge, but hold the sugar. Both Adriaan and Waldick cringe when they think of the mashed fish dishes with bones and scales.
Mike Loewe, editor of East Cape News, spent 82 days in the hands of the Security Police. "Those psychopaths. They used to relish their jobs. You could smell the fear in those cells. People were bloody -- ragid." He shakes his head. "They actually separated the blacks from the whites.
"The Security Branch identified me as a nuisance. I was one of those white democrat student lefties writing for the alternative press."
Loewe recalls a scene with one of the Security Police.
"I'm only doing my job."
"That's what they said at Nuremburg," said Loewe.
"I am a Nazi! I am Nazi!"
"It was depressing man. Killings. Beatings. Many South African's didn't want to admit there was a civil war going on. But there was." Loewe rattles off other names he remembers from the struggle. Our own Louise Vale, General Manager at Grocott's Mail Newspaper is one of them.
Vale was detained for four months. "Before that people started disappearing. Being detained," she says. At the time, she was working for the South African Community for Higher Education (SACHED), an anti-apartheid education institution. "I couldn't believe I was in prison. A pink lady, from this pink life."
Six struggle activists met for a photo and a drink on Wednesday night. They stood around reminiscing old times.
"How long were you in for?" asks Vale.
"Two Christmasses," says Tyron Austin, former member of the Grahamstown Youth Movement.
"For me it was also more than two years," says Burgess.
And what organisation were you with? Do you remember so-and-so? And that policeman who was so cruel?
Vale makes special note of the fact that there were hundreds who were not there.
When Vale was released she was on restriction but more determined. "My friends were still in prison, some were killed. I simply couldn't have stopped," she says. She has a picture on her office wall of Mathew Goniwe. She quotes him: "Don't follow individuals, follow ideas."
Mafongosi, among many others, have ideas. "Some of the things we fought for has not been realised. It pains me to notice that former freedom fighters now in government and the municipality deviated from the people's mandate. They enrich themselves with wealth... while our rural and peri-urban poor live in conditions of squalor with a host of diseases."
Loewe agrees: "The honeymoon is over... there are too many unnecessary deaths."
Siyasanga Hompashe is a Communications Graduate Trainee at Volkswagen of South Africa in Uitenhage. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism and Media Studies from Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Postgraduate Certificate in Eduacation and a Barchelor of Arts, majoring in Music and English from the University of Fort Hare in Alice, South Africa. She has worked in the media as a reporter and a radio presenter. She has also worked as an Educator in East London in 2005.