BOOK REVIEW | Struggle hero Matsobane is still standing tall

Title: An Unsung Struggle Hero

Author: Thabile Mange

Publisher: Mange Publishing

Reviewer: Tumo Mokone

The Struggle was a difficult period for many South Africans, more so those who had stepped forward to take visible leadership roles in the fight to bring down the apartheid regime.

So, when at the end of it all the phrase "this freedom was not free" gained currency, it is the story of people like Michael Sello Matsobane which reveal how daunting the task to fight apartheid was.

Titled An Unsung Struggle Hero, the story of Bra Mike, as Matsobane is known in the streets of the West Rand and beyond, details the troubles this unassuming stalwart went through as a freedom fighter.

Even more troubling is the fact that the stories of many freedom fighters, leaders and foot soldiers alike, remain unknown after so many years. Mange has made a commendable effort to change this narrative in the case of Matsobane.

Bra Mike’s story was a struggle from birth, as the second born of five children of a landless family which depended on white farmers in the Free State for their livelihood.,

His family’s arrangement of existence was that of sharecroppers and cattle grazing tenant.

Through this deal, the Matsobane family worked the land for a small portion of farm produce, grazing rights for their livestock and lodging privilege.

It was hard for the Matsobanes as their survival, and that of other black families in Viljoensdrift and other small places in Free State, depended on the whim of the white farmers.  Lack of alternative opportunities led to Bra Mike’s family moving to the industrialised West Rand, where his father found a job.

Matsobane’s story via Mange’s book carries many other stories, such as the story of Munsieville, the first black township in Krugersdorp, the family of late Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who taught Bra Mike English before he left for Swaziland for his priesthood training, the formation and influence of Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) on the West Rand and the stories of many other comrades of which Aaron Khoza’s really touched me.

Tutu’s father, Zachariah Tutu, was Bra Mike’s principal at Phatudi Primary School and had to deal with cases of misconduct involving this one young charge.

And that was not because Matsobane was troublesome but, in reality,  troubled by poverty circumstances of his family as his father did not earn enough to adequately support a big family living in a one-room house.

Matsobane joined the PAC, an offshoot of ANC over ideological differences, in 1961. He was 20 years old.

From there his life was a mind-boggling whirlwind of events, starting with an unusual romance that led to his marriage to a Vaal schoolteacher, arrests, trials including the famous Bethal treason trial, exile, capture and deportation from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), incarceration in prisons all over SA and torture...

The horror Matsobane went through is numbing, for a lack of proper word to describe the types and sessions of torture he experienced in police custody and prison.

Even more troubling is the fact that Matsobane was not a criminal or firebrand, but a loving family man and community activist of mild habits and soft nature.

Incredibly, Michael Sello Matsobane is still standing tall despite the physical and emotional scars of his fight against apartheid.

He is 82 years old.