SEXWALE ’ S KIDS FOUGHT FOR THE COUNTRY ’ S LIBERATION
AS A father of freedom fighter children, retired World War II soldier Makhura Frank Lesetja Kgomotlokwa Sexwale was not a stranger to harassment by the security police.
Sexwale, 97, who is the father of former human settlements minister Tokyo, first worked as a teacher until 1939 when he volunteered to be a soldier in the SA army during World War II, and was deployed in North Africa.
The policies of a then racially segregated South Africa did not allow him and fellow black soldiers to carry weapons, so they had to dig trenches, serve as stretcher bearers, and work in other non-combat activities.
The better life that they were promised for fighting in the war was denied them on their return, and this fuelled Sexwale ’ s passion to fight discrimination.
Sexwale was born at GaMashashane in Limpopo in dire poverty. He married his wife, Ngoanamolepo Sekele, in 1945 and they had six children – Mathabatha, Lesetja, Mosima (Tokyo), Magirly, Johnny Raisecha and Mashadi – all of whom they raised in Dube, Soweto.
Five of Sexwale ’ s six chil- dren joined Umkhonto weSizwe, leaving him, his wife and their youngest daughter Mashadi behind when they were forced into exile or landed in prisons, including the infamous Robben Island.
The Sexwales were repeatedly detained during the apartheid era.
As a proud member of the Motloung of the Mantuba clan, Sexwale compiled a family tree, gathered extended family members from across the country and made his children and grandchildren travel to Limpopo to visit the burial places of the ancestors.
When his son Lesetja was killed in combat with security forces in Eliot, Eastern Cape, in 1980, Sexwale demanded his body from the authorities, to the extent that then minister of police Adriaan Vlok threatened him with arrest.
Sexwale only found peace when his child ’ s remains were located in Free State, and reburied at Avalon Cemetery in Soweto.
He spent most of his career at General Hospital in Hillbrow, Joburg, doing clerical duties. He retired in 1980.