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Philip Nhlapo, mayor of Mhluzi and chairman of the nfbl told me he was optimistic. ‘We are moving. Even today I read an item in the paper, that the Reverend Allan Hendrickse said, that the nfbl did not truly represent blacks. But what is Hendrickse doing? Was he using or misusing his vote and his constituency? The Labour Party forgot all along to look after the interests of the coloureds. Today, they are not governing themselves, as we blacks are doing. Decisions are made for them by white town councillors. That is not the case with us. Black communities are autonomous. We are making our own decisions. We are local authorities. Coloureds only act as advisors to white councils. I sit with them in Regional Services Councils. They don't seem to want to accept direct governmental responsibility. So, here comes Allan Hendrickse, who now says, ‘Blacks do not want the nfbl. I find it difficult to discuss these matters with people who reason that way. They are simply not fully sufficient here upstairs’ (and he pointed with his finger to his head).
‘Do you expect the nfbl to continue?’ I asked. ‘It is continuing,’ said mayor Nhlapo, ‘and we are about to meet the Minister of Justice, Kobie Coetsee, to discuss the state of emergency. We are the people that want to crack the walls of apartheid and get inside. We are not saying that we want to get in there, in order to be appointed as ministers later or clamour for governmental posts. We are simply paving the way for the right people. Remember what happened in Kenya? Tom Boya was holding the bridge for Jomo Kenyatta to come out.’
‘And he was killed,’ I replied. ‘Yes, he was,’ said Philip Nhlapo, ‘but when Kenyatta came out, he was the man. What we now want is a different type of government in South Africa, a multi-racial one, with no longer one group dominating the other. One thing we definitely do not want, and that is a one-party state. That possibility is out.’
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