Joining the struggle a no-brainer for township’s young guns in the 1970s
For some apartheid struggle heroes who lived in New Brighton in the 1970s, fighting the regime was not a conscious decision — circumstances thrust them into politics as they strived for a better future.
Struggle veteran Nceba Faku, 68, said it was not until 1974, when his brother returned home for the holidays from a tactical school in King William’s Town that he told them about the Black Consciousness Movement and why they needed to join the South African Students Movement.
Faku said joining the movement was an easy decision for many of the township’s youngsters simply because they were students and black people.
“The people who grew up in [New Brighton] were not necessarily awoken by a singular incident, it was their experience of life in general and how those who had the ability to interpret that experience found resonance with our conscience because they were interpreting our life’s experiences too.”
Faku, who became the first democratically elected mayor of Port Elizabeth in 1995, said apart from the segregation laws that made life difficult for blacks, activists such as Barney Pityana, a Black Consciousness Movement leader, were role models whom many youngsters respected.
Pityana lived just five houses away from Faku’s family.
“I was young when he was put on house arrest, and these things come back to you later in life and you realise that’s why there would be white people and so many cars parked outside that house.”
Faku still experiences pain from a permanent injury caused in 1975, when he fell and hurt his lower back after being chased by police in New Brighton’s Singaphi Street, as he and other youngsters emerged from an underground meeting.
He only realised the extent of his injury in 2017 when he had to undergo surgery.
Faku said New Brighton’s deplorable condition today did not represent the gains of the freedom the people had fought for.
“The state of lawlessness is concerning and the general outlook of the area in terms of the filth, bad roads, stormwater drains, the general lack of maintenance of the environment and the dilapidated houses.
“It’s in a total state of despair.
“Even though we lived under strict apartheid laws, socially we were happy.
“There were music artists, sportspeople, school competitions, arts and crafts, discipline in schools, public servants actually did their work — and that quality of life somehow got lost when we should have built on it.”
Nelson Mandela Bay deputy mayor Mkhuseli “Khusta” Jack was forced to venture into politics when he arrived in New Brighton — then primarily an entertainment and education hub — in the mid-1970s to start high school.
“When I arrived there in 1975, there was no visible political activity, it was absolutely quiet.
“To enter New Brighton coming from the farms of Humansdorp was almost impossible because of the pass laws and when we did, we immediately became illegal.”
Jack recalled how he got kicked out of class because he did not appear on the requisite “family card” as proof he was his parents’ son.
He said getting involved in politics was initially about small grievances, and the main one for him and about 300 other pupils was the lack of access to schools.
“As a group, we started to speak openly and publicly against the government and that they must create a space for us to be accepted but the education department said they couldn’t change the pass laws.
“Fortunately, some teachers stood their ground and allowed us in class, and that group later became the people who supported me right through all political activities from that time onwards.”
After the student uprising of 1976, Jack organised student boycotts and was one of the leaders in the 1980 student boycotts.
“There were few people who got involved because the police would nab anyone who participated.
“I was still in high school and influenced by the leaders at the time, like Pityana, and we got guidance from them.”
Jack was arrested and jailed from 1985 to 1989 and after his release left SA to study overseas.