Listening to the silent majority

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Khehla Shubane (33) was arrested in 1976, as he told me, for recruiting young blacks for the armed wing of the anc. ‘I went from 1977 to 1982 on Robben Island, to serve my term of imprisonment. I was placed in a communal cell of 20 people. There were three such cells. During certain hours there was a fair amount of mixing among the prisoners. We would often work outside, mostly on road repairs. At first, we could only get screened books, but as time passed, there was some improvement. Gradually we could read newspapers and there were certain magazines we could subscribe to, but everything had still to pass the censor. We mainly relied on news from the outside world through the arrival of new prisoners. In 1978 there were some improvements. We were allowed TIME magazine. We also were getting sabc radio broadcasts.’

Khehla made many friends in prison. A number of them have also been released by now. ‘I was not allowed to take up studies beyond matric. But the Red Cross,’ said Khehla, ‘has been instrumental in changing that. After 1981 post-matric studies were admitted at Robben Island. But in 1982 I was released. I realised’ he said, ‘that I had lost a normal sense of relating to people. I used to be with 16 or 18 other

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people, always strictly guarded, and all of a sudden you find yourself in a situation with no wall around you any more. It feels funny. You step out into the night and there is no-one watching over you any more. It feels strange even. For two weeks I enjoyed just being at home, talking to people, watching television, reading newspapers, without them being censored by anyone any more, speaking to people over the phone.’

First, he couldn't find a job at all, but eventually, he held a clerical job with an insurance company, which he lost after a strike five months later. The rest of 1983 he worked for the Soweto Civic Association. ‘But in 1984, I began studying Political Science at the Witwatersrand University. I received a scholarship from the African Scholarship Program sponsored by some churches with headquarters in Braamfontein. I have now applied for a Fulbright scholarship to go to America and get my Masters degree in Political Science.’ I asked him what area of international relations interested him most. ‘Africa,’ he replied without hesitation, ‘super-power politics would interest me as far as it relates to Africa. I also want to understand precisely what policy means. Recently I travelled four weeks on a Walter Levy Fellowship to the United States. Coming from South Africa, I realized that America has just not yet resolved its racial problems. I saw this with my own eyes. Also, the image some Americans have of our country is incredible. I would run up the question, “How are the elephants doing in South Africa?” They often think we are still living in the bush. But then, I wasn't there long enough to really meet all kinds of people. We also were escorted, so we didn't visit places where we might have met racial problems. What was confusing to me as a South African was the free availability of information all around. I went into a large bookshop in New York. The abundance of books on the shelves was perplexing. I got confused. What to choose? In spite of all the problems the Americans might still have, the freedom of information is just incredible. They have the best, absolutely.’

What struck me was that Khehla Shubane, now an assistant-researcher at the Centre of Policy Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, takes the position - keeping in mind that he once recruited anc guerillas - ‘there is no point for blacks to wait for a post-apartheid South Africa. All this violence should stop. It has cost us so much in terms of suffering, human lives, and loss of property. I hope the lessons we paid will register in peoples minds. I no longer hold any

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quarrel with people who have different opinions and look for different solutions to our struggle for liberation.’

The former prisoner of Robben Island now researches with a Wits team on how black local authorities are functioning, with an accent on black local public facilities. Of course I asked him whether he was aware of recent events in Lekoa city. ‘Yes, I know,’ he said. I asked, ‘Why don't we find a letter about it in the papers?’ Shubane: ‘I don't really know. Maybe the press feels these events are not newsworthy!’

‘How can this not be newsworthy?’ I asked. ‘The tpa is said not to be on the side of legality, and condones the subversive moves of the Sofasonke irregulars. Now, why's that?’

‘I know,’ said Shubane. ‘Over the past six months of my research here, I have been busy collecting information. I have been in Lekoa. Next month, I will go there again, just to speak with them and find out what has been going on since I was there last. Fairly soon, all our researchers will turn in their various reports and we will compile them into a full-scale document to be published by our Centre for Policy Studies.’ ‘Fine, and will it be simply added to the many books and reports in the Library and disappear?’ I asked ‘We usually do send these studies around to the media.’