‘We never fought for xenophobia’

“IT IS heart-breaking to think what our struggle was about and see xenophobia in our country,” says Sibongile Khumalo, former freedom fighter and chairwoman of non-profit organisation Pan African Genesis.

“The same people we burnt alive in 2008 and last year, sheltered us when we fled South Africa at a time when the country was crumbling,” she said.

Khumalo remembered 1977, a year after the uprising. She was just 15 living in Meadowlands and with 11 older Black Consciousness students fled the country. For 20 years she lived in exile and used her nom de guerre Promise Lamula.

Khumalo remembered that on 16 June she was sitting in class writing a test. Minutes later the police gunshots rang out. She had known about the planned march and remembered the reverberation of freedom songs as thousands marched to Orlando stadium.

As the marchers moved through the streets, more people joined them. “I was sitting in class when students came and invaded our school. We joined them,” said Khumalo.

But the march took an ugly turn. There were gun shots, then teargas.

During her 20 years in exile Khumalo underwent 18 months’ military training in Tripoli, Libya. For many years she was a broadcaster for Radio Freedom – then Voice of the African National Congress and uMkhonto we Sizwe in different parts of the continent.

“The freedom we fought for could have not been accomplished without our bothers and sisters in other African countries.”

Last month Khumalo launched her book: Xenopho- bia: The Greatest Tragedy of Our Time on her experiences of xenophobic attacks in South Africa. The book launch has also birthed the Pan African Cross Cultural Exchange Programme for youngsters across Africa.

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PICTURE: ARCHIVES Students take part in protests in Soweto on June 16, 1976.