By Gabu Tugwana
As we prepare to lay him to his final resting place, the man who sparked my coverage of the events prior and during the June 16, 1976, Soweto education unrest at the Rand Daily Mail will be remembered for his transformative legacy.
Sechaba Dan Montsitsi, one of the founding presidents of the Soweto Students' Representative Council (SSRC), died last Thursday due to Covid-19 complications.
He was one of the key organisers of the events and strategist of the June 16 students' protests against attempts by the apartheid government to force instruction of school subjects in the Afrikaans language.
Other SSRC presidents involved in this campaign were Tsietsi Mashinini and Khotso Seathlolo, who were forced to secretly leave the country and go into exile to escape police detention.
Montsitsi stayed behind playing hide and seek from police detection by changing hideout places at various houses of relatives and friends.
I was one of the journalists to attend his separately arranged secret media briefings, mostly covered by the dark of night for hand-picked media representatives.
We met outside crowded disco clubs, busy evening church service buildings and houses. We would selected a quiet place where to avoid drawing attention of uninvited strangers.
At these meetings, there were briefings on plans to oppose the forced implementation of the apartheid government's education policies and general oppressive regulations.
Topics included plans to protest and demand the release of the jailed Nelson Mandala and other members of the political leadership.
Montsitsi was two years older than me, and I think this probably made it easier for us click.
His home was in Diepkloof, a township at the edge of Soweto. He attended school at Sekano Nontoane High, some 40 minutes away from his home, travelling by public transport.
It was at these meetings I learnt that activists, including Montsitsi, were forced to avoid staying at their homes because the police made repeated raids seeking to detain them for their political activities.
Key on the agenda, was the popularisation of campaigns against the oppressive government administration and their imposing of the unpopular use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction at black schools.
Due this situation, there were times I had to assist Montsitsi with some of his travelling and the production of media statements and related reading material for distribution among students and communities.
Although I was always going to my newspaper offices to work, I began finding a way of constantly changing route when going home.
I was shocked to learn one day that armed police in plain clothes and camouflaged overalls came to look for me at my home. During their visit, they searched the house but never gave reasons why.
As a precautionary measure, I was also forced to leave home and stay at a church-owned boarding school in Rosettenville, south of Joburg. The accommodation was arranged by a priest I had briefed about the reasons why I left home.
In the meantime, my confidential meetings with Montsitsi continued far away from my church hideouts.
Montsitsi was patient, a good listener, insightful, a deep thinker, soft-spoken and persuasive. He always sought a far-reaching solution to address the plight of the deprived and less privileged in society.
During the June 16 protests, he used school branch leadership in ensuring journalists kept track of identifying places where there were intense activity of protesters and the police.
A good tip from Montsitsi's colleagues led us to an unmarked green sedan with police in camouflaged uniform in Mofolo, an area near Morris Isaacson High School where Mashinini schooled. This was the school headed by principal Lekgau Mathabathe and among teachers in in his staff was Fanyana Mazibuko of the Teachers Action Committee. At some stage, the two were detained by the police for suspected activities in political matters on education-related and community matters.
The green police car was driving though the streets near Mofolo schools close to Morris Isaacson hunting down students in school uniforms and shooting them without any provocation.
I had to use a private car to take some of the wounded to the hospital. This helped me to beat the hospital's ban preventing journalists going into Baragwanath hospital.
As a result, the names of those treated and admitted to wards overnight were then published in the Rand Daily Mail and The World newspapers. Parents and relatives were relieved to get this information and able to visit their children the next day.
I was also tipped off about the removal of township dwellers by the government mortuary vehicles at Mzimhlope, a township near a hostel, where hostel dwellers unexpectedly raided their homes with pangas and killed them in the dead of the night.
At some stage Montsitsi was detained, charged, and given a jail sentence.
Montsitsi, who played an important role to inform me of the students’ education protests and confrontation with the police, was the third SSRC president, after Mashinini and Seatlholo fled South Africa to avoid arrest by a police political unit known as the Special Branch (SBs).
After completing his prison term, Montsitsi met my family. During this period and after interaction with him and observation of his treatment of situations in public, my wife Bessie, and I were highly impressed with Montsitsi's integrity and love for the country and care for its people
His death due to complications with Covid-19 is a great loss to the community and especially the youth he used to engage in discussions at every turn of the moment he saw them - telling them of the role they could play to make a difference in the future of this country.
At the time of his death, the ANC member had served at various levels in government including the ad-hoc Committee on Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill, Joint Standing Committee on Defence, Select Committee on Labour and Public Enterprises, Economic Development etc.
Our sympathies go out to his family and all his loved ones who gave us generous opportunities to spend time with him.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
*Tugwana is director of communications at the City of Joburg
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of IOL.