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I went to meet Mr Philip Nhlapo (64), Mayor of Mhluzi, the Black Township of Middelburg in the Vaal, some 150 kilometres east of Johannesburg. He is President of UCASA and lately became Chairman of the National Forum of Black Leaders to negotiate a rightful place for blacks in South African society. We met in his spacious office at the Civic Centre in the heart of the township, a colour photograph of State President pw botha on the wall. Mr Nhlapo, who also spoke fluent Afrikaans, had been mayor for seven years. During the last municipal elections in 1988 his People's Progressive Party gained 8 of the 11 seats in the Mhluzi Town Council.
I asked him why, across the board, blacks in South Africa seemed to have but limited communication with each other. ‘That's why we founded the Urban Council Association of South Africa (UCASA),’ he replied: ‘I was acting President until I became President on February 22, 1989 by unanimous vote. From that moment, we decided in our Executive to send a memorandum to Minister Chris Heunis to bring together blacks from the townships in urban areas and from all other pertinent organisations in the country.’ I asked the mayor why not everyone was joining. He replied that most blacks and their organisations had come in. This I knew to be untrue, but I listened. ‘You see, the black leaders we have momentarily in our urban areas,’ said Mr Nhlapo, ‘are often blamed [to be] collaborators, but in reality they are the people who are actively looking after the interests of the black communities. Now, they serve in the National Forum, of which some black leaders are critical. But remember who were the leaders that resisted the unrest amongst blacks that was being perpetrated by Bishop Desmond Tutu and his clergy? We mayors in black townships have witnessed some of the results of these irresponsible actions. Blacks are today suffering, and some are even starving to death, because of Tutu's disinvestment crusades. These clergymen are now even talking to international banks, not to assist South Africans financially any more. We mayors all over the country resisted all that, and in fact, some of our colleagues were mercilessly murdered by criminal gangs. There was bloodshed. But we, the so-called collaborators, resisted all that.’
Mayor Nhlapo continued, ‘Today it is very important that we should be prepared to live and let live. That is what we are praying for. We are
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