Paying tribute to journalist activist Joe Thloloe

Best and worst of times celebrated at 80th birthday bash

What does brutal torture at the hands of an oppressive political system have to do with birthdays or the celebration of the milestones of a person’s life?

Joe Thloloe’s lifetime friend and fellow traveller in the field of journalism, Dr Thami Mazwai, was better placed than the rest of the guests, friends and family who braved the wintry cold Saturday evening to put things into perspective on Thloloe’s special day, on which he turned 80.

Perhaps it would be fitting to describe it as a red-letter day – a memorable and never to be forgotten moment.

In its simplicity, Thloloe’s birthday bash was significant in many ways.

It was about the retelling and remembering of the highlights of his life, peppered with an assortment of incidents, including detention under section 6 of the Terrorism Act in 1977, and its accompanying police torture.

There was also the near-death experience visited on him by the township hoodlums who assaulted him in his early life, leaving him for dead.

To reach the age of 80, particularly if you are a township resident – Thloloe was an Orlando East lad – and given the country’s violent history, the milestone is worth celebrating.

Thloloe’s younger sister, Sibongile, speaking on behalf of the family at the gathering held at Emoyeni restaurant in Parktown, described how her brother joined the PAC as a young matric pupil and how at about the same time got into political trouble, thanks to the unjust Verwoerdian pass laws.

With a heavy heart, she also recalled the difficult times he had with the bottle, and how he was almost killed, suffering stab wounds and almost losing an eye.

Thloloe’s proud sister recalled how the young man made significant progress with his studies, even under difficult times while constantly being under the police microscope, scoring top marks in the Joint Matriculation Board examinations.

“Our parents were disappointed that Joe, with such outstanding results and a good brain, did not choose medicine as a career, but preferred journalism.”

Mazwai, on the other hand, focused on his more than 60 years of friendship with Thloloe.

“We were both at Orlando High; both on Robben Island; both newspapermen; both detained and tortured. At school, Joe arranged that I join the PAC, and he was part of the delegation that ‘fetched my makoti in the Transkei’.”

Mazwai, in graphic detail, described how he was tortured by the security police, had his private parts electrocuted and squeezed in the most dehumanising manner, as a method of extracting information to implicate or incriminate comrades.

For one thing, February 1 1977 will forever stay with Thloloe. It was on this day, 45 years ago, that he was arrested by the security police.

Thloloe would stay incarcerated in Howick , Kwazulu-natal, for more than a year while his comrade, Steve Biko, died naked in a cell of shame in Pretoria at the hands of the security police in 1977.

His mentor and political master, Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, died the following year, in 1978, without Thloloe knowing about it.

On his release, Thloloe returned to a different world where the newspapers The World and Weekend World were closed, and a host of other organisations including the Black People’s Convention, Black Parents Association and Union of Black Journalists, among many others, were banned.

Many returns Thloloe for your splendid 80 years of light.