Remembering Mahlangu in the swirl of Diepsloot
I WAS devastated by the news that foreigners are once again the victims of a programme that has all the hallmarks of Operation Dudula.
Why is this happening? I recall our Struggle and of people who fought and died in that Struggle.
Let me narrate one such freedom fighter.
On April 6, 1979, one of our sons was hanged by the apartheid government.
Yes, as Julius Malema said, he was sentenced to death by a white judge upholding an illegal, immoral regime.
I paused yesterday to ask Allah to forgive him and to elevate his soul to the highest stages among the righteous in jannah.
I know you will Google about him and support my petition. Those were odious days that found us confronting an evil regime whose support by the US, UK, France and Germany propped it up for long enough.
So you must know about Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu. Despite the best legal minds fighting to save his life, in the end the government would not budge.
On April 6, 1979, aged 23, Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu was executed, his spirit unbroken by the long time he had spent in the shadow of the gallows.
His last words were: “My blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom.” This kind of memory keeps me on the ground, still fighting the banality of an all-pervasive evil which is a continuation from that era.
The fact that people have taken the law into their own hands and under the guise of Operation Dudula started hunting down undocumented foreigners resulting in at least one death, that of a Zimbabwean, Elvis Nyathi – yes he had a name and, yes, he had a family – at the hands of these self-styled vigilantes who now have blood on their hands.
Crime and corruption with unemployment have turned many desperate South Africans towards becoming accomplices or willing participants.
Remember Solomon Mahlangu, whose life of Struggle saw no distinction between oppressed people. It shames me that xenophobia should redefine who is a worthy beneficiary in South Africa.
SABER AHMED JAZBHAY | Newlands West