I was among the group of students during the 1976 student uprisings, who walked from Mahikeng to Botswana.

We were escaping the brutality of the apartheid security forces who were charged with hunting us down. [In Botswana] we found solace, dignity, peace and protection from a brutal system which continued its onslaught on pupils.

I moved from Botswana to Tanzania, Angola, Maputo and Swaziland. I was a teenager deprived of citizenship in my country of birth but rewarded with the warmth and welcome of the people of these sister countries who saw me as their own child and understood my agony of being stateless.

There was hardly enough food in Angola and Mozambique yet they shared what they had with us.

We were not a burden but a commitment to the freedom of the continent as a whole.

Their resolve to support our liberation was unwavering; some like Angola, Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland and Mozambique lost citizens during the bombings by the apartheid security forces.

A few weeks ago I walked in the street of Temeke, a suburb in Dar es Salaam which received hundreds of us in 1976. I danced with my "family". I was home.

These countries were a place of hope when hope was diminished, safety and security when survival in South Africa was at risk. We studied and equipped ourselves to fight.

We are free today, because of the efforts of these countries.

Fellow Africans come to our shores today seeking a similar solace, dignity, peace and protection. How can we allow these senseless and shameful attacks?

I call on all of us as South Africans to stop these attacks on our fellow human beings, enough is enough.