Listening to the silent majority

[41]

I continued my conversation with Tom Boya, who is another strong black voice advocating the removal of apartheid from South African soil. ‘In 1987, we formed the United Municipalities of South Africa (UNSA),’ he said. ‘We became a break-away group from an organisation called UCASA, (Urban Council Association of South Africa), of which I was at the time the vice-president. It was a matter of the old guard fighting the young lions. We were very dissatisfied with the way our organisation was actually run. In some cases we were even not allowed to challenge the government on issues about which we were dissatisfied. The straw that broke the camel's back was a problem we had in Oukasie, a little black town near Brits, that rose to a climax in October 1986. The government was saying it would remove people by force to a place called Lehlabile. All black organisations objected to this. So, we decided, as younger members of UCASA, to fight this issue against the wishes of our president. We wrote to the Minister of Development and Planning, Chris Heunis, and asked him to meet us to discuss the matter of Oukasie. The minister was surprised to see me, and a few other members, and not the president himself. We went to see him with, if I recall correctly, the mayor of Atteridgeville, Mrs Nahlangu, the deputy mayor of Kasigo, David Mediba, our secretary-general, Solly Rammala and myself.’

I asked Tom to enlarge upon his experience in dealing with Chris Heunis. ‘I give you my very personal opinion,’ he said. ‘Here is a man, who plays two roles in his life. One role is Heunis the politician, whom you and I see on television. But then, there is also a completely different Heunis, the man you sit down with to talk to, man to man. I have had many dealings with him in the past during which he displayed so much understanding of black problems in this country. Heunis is a very difficult man to judge from afar, but I know him. There is this human aspect to his personality, that we came to know well. Most likely, it is due to his

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personal intervention that the people of Oukasie are still there. They have not been moved.’

‘But I also recall,’ Boya said, ‘that our first meeting with this minister about the forcible removal of the people of Oukasie lasted only 15 minutes. I stopped the encounter in the middle. Heunis then maintained that the people had got to be moved to a more suitable place. He stressed that this was government policy. But we were, of course, flatly against removal. Actually, the entire project was against the policy as proclaimed by the government itself. The government had repeatedly declared that forced removals belonged to the past. But here it was: people were nevertheless to be removed. So, immediately after leaving Heunis' office we wrote to State President PW Botha. We described the basic cruelty of forced removals, the similar crudeness of the Group Areas Act, and all other laws that were still kept in the statute books. We explained the negative influence these antiquated laws imprinted on the minds of the people of our beloved country. Of course, the State President replied in a three- or four-page letter, that he objected to the language we had used, and that the issue could be resolved in further discussions and that we should go back to Chris Heunis. This, naturally, we were not prepared to do. On October 31st 1986 bulldozers had been scheduled to move in and demolish Oukasie. We went there that day to demonstrate our solidarity with the people of Oukasie. The bulldozers never came. They still have not come. We have numerous examples of planned forced removals. Each time we organized resistance and the removals never happened.’^24.

‘Let me add,’ said Tom, ‘the significance of the story of Oukasie is, that on November 26, 1986, there was to be an UCASA meeting in East London. Remember, we acted in Oukasie against the wishes of our president. I was supposed to fly to East London as well. But, when I got to the airport, there was no ticket for me. So, the president fired me in East London in my pre-arranged absence. The director-general was ousted at the same time. I promptly called a meeting of the so-called young lions of UCASA. We deliberated the matter. Most of us were also members of a think-tank. The entire body of this institution sided with

24. In June 1989 blacks are still killing each other over disagreement to move Oukasie, as proposed now, to Motholong. (Charles Mogale in City Press, June 18, 1989)

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me,^25. including the director-general. It was then we decided to break away. On February 28, 1987 we launched UMSA.’

25. Which goes to prove once more the importance of trained minds for the UCASA think-tank, in relation to the struggle for liberation