SA must honour the giant Sobukwe

“WHEN a man is great, any death is untimely, even if he dies at the age of 102.”

Wednesday marked 40 years of the death, by poison, of such a man, Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe, who died at the tender age of 52.

Though this anniversary was quite uneventful, with less media coverage, I should applaud Motsweding FM for allocating a few seconds of millions of hours they possess to Sobukwe.

Motsweding FM asked listeners, myself included, to send WhatsApp voice notes of about 10 minutes summarising Sobukwe’s biography How Can Man Die Better: The Life of Robert Sobukwe, authored by Benjamin Pogrund.

The voice notes were played live during the midday show, Bua Le Mmino, presented by Benny Motaung and Lebo Leabile.

Shine, Motsweding FM, but you can do better.

Sobukwe’s ideas and teachings remain suppressed, and I am also a victim of that unjust act. For 12 full years of my life in a government school I have never heard of his name, nor even his organisation, an organisation that was the first to have the pass laws suspended, temporarily. The first organisation to engage in an armed struggle. The first men in modern history to be imprisoned on Robben Island came from this organisation, the PAC, which went as far as outnumbering other political movements that came in later years.

Jafta Masemola of the PAC remains the longestserving political prisoner on Robben Island. He was assassinated on April 17, 1990, six short months after his release. The day of his death was the only day in those six months that he travelled without a bodyguard.

The PAC, once united, must look into this case. About 100 PAC/Poqo members were hanged a Pretoriat Central Prison. Four of the PAC/Poqo members were from Munsieville in Krugersdorp. They bravely accepted the ultimate sentence and went to be hanged without uttering a word.

Sobukwe fought tirelessly for his country of birth. His love for the great continent of Africa was unsurpassed.

I go down on my knees and beg production houses like Bomb Productions to contact the Robert Sobukwe Foundation to make a movie on the life and times of this great man. Witpoortjie, Roodepoort