Johannesburg - A strange thing happened in Kagiso yesterday!
The community got together to celebrate one of their own, Michael Sello Matsobane - in his lifetime.
The soft-spoken gentle giant of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) school of politics was feted like the royalty he most definitely is at the Mike Sello Matsobane Inaugural Lecture at Kagiso Senior Secondary School on the West Rand.
Among the star-studded line-up that paid homage to Matsobane was former PAC President Letlapa Mphahlele, spokesperson Jaki Seroke and Matsobane’s homegirl, former Water and Sanitation minister Nomvula Mokonyane.
Matsobane was sentenced to Robben Island, twice. The first time, he says, was when “I was trying to enter the country (the then Rhodesia) on my way to Tanzania. I was deported to South Africa and was charged with leaving the country without proper documents and furthering the interests of a banned organisation.”
He was on the Island from 1964 to 1967.
His second stint on Robben Island happened in 1976 - in the aftermath of the Soweto Student Uprisings, when, together with his comrades from Poqo - the military wing of the PAC, they were sentenced to long prison terms, Matsobane for the longest at 15.
He was released in 1987 “and was immediately placed under stringent house arrest conditions, which I mostly defied”.
The late Rodney Tsholetsane, another Kagiso local, had the lightest sentence of the six, at five years in the Bethal Trial.
Matsobane’s political journey induces goosebumps. He tells stories of how he met with the mercurial Potlako Leballo, who rose to the helm of the PA at the time when most leaders were in prison.
From the old township of Munsieville, Matsobane relates stories of being taught by the late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu: “He taught us English, but only for a while as he soon left to pursue his clerical calling in the then Swaziland.”
Matsobane’s high school Principal at Phatudi was none other than Zachariah Tutu, the Arch’s father.
In his youth, Matsobane did all the rites of passage, including caddying at the local golf course and selling oranges.
Like Tutu before him, Matsobane studied at Madibane High School, taking the train and a bus from the West Rand.
His first taste of politics was when he was expelled from school after a students’ strike, ostensibly for owing three years’ school fees.
Around the time of the Sharpeville Massacre, “we were approached at school to join the anti-pass campaign. We were in the main still blank on party politics. It was to be my first taste of police brutality. We handed ourselves in at Newlands Police station. The police were asked to arrest us for not carrying our pass books.”
When he was not in prison, he conscientised young political activists, including by starting a youth movement in December 1975.
Jaki Seroke says: “For me, Sello Matsobane is similar to the letter and spirit of the erection of 'The Tomb of an Unknown Soldier'. These are a pantheon of heroes who have engaged in battle against a dark force of colonialism and imperialism. No one remembers them, except their comrades in arms. They never become celebrities, because their cause is selflessness, humility and undying love for their people.”
“Matsobane is respected by all comrades, across political affiliations, who spent time with him in prison. A self-effacing and amiable character, Matsobane knows empathy and compassion for his fellow beings. He is a stickler for truth, facts and the pursuit of social justice.”
“He indefatigably mobilised the West Rand, bringing what later became high-profile figures such as the case of the Right Reverend Desmond Tutu to the fore of the struggle. He recruited youth to participate in the liberation struggle.”
Mokonyane says Matsobane is one of the people in Kagiso and the broader scheme of the country who are the embodiment of the resistance, resilience and perseverance against apartheid. “But most importantly, he’s an educator, without having to actually put you in a classroom.”
For Mokonyane, Matsobane is one of the people who made participation in the Struggle make sense through unpacking such concepts as hunger, poverty and food insecurity in households in the township.
“He is not just a freedom fighter,” she says, “but a social activist.”
Forever the ANC activist herself, Mokonyane says “there’s no way one could not subject oneself to his leadership”. Even during the time of the assumed dominance of the ANC, Matsobane never denied himself the opportunity to contribute to the body politic: “He has always had this ability to take everyone along.”
“He has no limits, no boundaries about his country. He has respect for younger comrades, activists. He’s an embodiment of our own history.”
Mokonyane says she skipped an ANC function to come pay her respects to Matsobane: “Luckily it’s not a memorial service or a funeral.”
Like Mokonyane says, the celebrant remains, just, bra Mike.
Organiser of the lecture, Thabile Mage, says: “Matsobane has contributed immensely in the struggle against apartheid. He is now in his twilight years (81), and is yet to be recognised for the role he has played in the fight against the evil of apartheid.”
“In South Africa, we have a tendency of recognising people when they are dead. It’s wrong.”