The inspiration to write his newly published book, Walking with Giants - Life and Times of an ANC Veteran, flowed from a desire to explain to his family why he disappeared from their lives without a trace for 29 years in 1962, Sindiso Mfenyana said.
Speaking to the Cape Times yesterday, 77-year-old Mfenyana, who became the first black Secretary to Parliament in the new democratic South Africa of the Mandela era, said: “I was away from home in Queenstown, Eastern Cape, from 1961 when I went to study at Fort Hare University and was then sent into exile by the ANC in 1962 to study abroad.”
The eldest of 10 siblings, Mfenyana said his family had not seen him for 29 years.
“In fact, my two last-born siblings never even saw me as they were born after I had left for exile. So when I came back, I owed it to my family to explain why they had to live without me for 29 years,” he said.
Another reason for the book, he said, was that he owed it to South Africa to explain what exiles were doing that took 29 years to ensure the country's freedom.
“I needed to give the nation - especially this generation we call the born-frees - a picture of what we were doing,” he said.
He hoped his book, which was launched in Parliament last Thursday, would encourage mutual understanding between races.
His appointment as the first black under-secretary to Parliament from 1994 to 1997 and full secretary from 1997 to 2004 was an honour for Mfenyana.
“More than anything else, I realised I carried the responsibility to demonstrate that blacks were equally capable of carrying out these responsibilities.
"In the process I was impressed by the willingness of white civil servants to assist in whatever way they could to ensure that I was successful in my work,” he added.
He said the government should take responsibility for the growing frustration of people, as it was no longer a question of a white minority oppressing a black majority, but a black majority government failing to meet its obligations to South Africa's disadvantaged majority.