 Henry 'Squire' Makgothi Unassuming ANC leader Henry Gordon "Squire" Makgothi, teacher, defiance campaigner and treason trialist, who died after a stroke on Thursday at the age of 82, was perhaps the most unassuming of a fighting generation of ANC leaders. Loyal, often to a fault, to friends and to the movement, to which he devoted his life, he remained confident that a better world was possible, though he was concerned at the way things were developing in South Africa. "The wheels seem to be coming off," he said several weeks ago. It was a feeling reinforced by a recent experience with the ANC Youth League. Makgothi, who was elected its Transvaal president in May 1945, was invited to speak at an ANCYL function in Johannesburg. When he turned up without an entourage or any fanfare, and made his way hesitantly towards the main entrance - his failing eyesight being the only ailment he complained about - he was ordered away. "What are you doing here old man? This is for the youth," said a youth league official. Without protest, he went to a side entrance, entered the hall and sat down. Eventually he was asked to come to the stage and "speak for longer than we asked because our president (Julius Malema) is not yet here. He has a new car and he is trying it out." He dismissed as irrelevant his own treatment; what upset him was the "disrespect" shown to the audience by a youth league president. This was an example of the wheels coming off. However, he still believed that somehow, at some time, even the wheels on the youth league would again be refitted and the journey to a freer, more egalitarian future would be resumed. Officially, he will almost certainly be hailed as a former deputy secretary-general of the ANC, as a stalwart of the SA Communist Party and as a secretary for education in the exile years. He served as the political commissar for East Africa and, after his return from exile, as the ANC chief whip in the National Council of Provinces between 1997 and 1999. But he always seemed uncomfortable with high office, perhaps because of an abiding belief in the inherent equality of all humanity. It was this that led him to try always to lead by example. I have a vivid memory of Makgothi inviting me to join him in 1981, knee-deep in sewage at the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College campus in Tanzania, as he struggled to clear a blocked drain. It was part of his policy of encouraging emulation, insisting that "no essential work is beneath anyone". This summed up the humility and humanity of Makgothi, a bright student and linguist who went to the University of Fort Hare where he graduated with a degree in African languages, a teaching diploma, and a wealth of political experience. It was a regular joke of his that he had very little experience in the only job for which he was qualified - teaching - because, with the advent of the 1952 defiance campaign, he lost his only teaching post and was barred from the profession. To make ends meet he briefly took on work as a driver of "green mambas" - the Public Utility Transport Company (Putco) buses that ferried workers from the townships before he landed a job as a records clerk with an accountancy firm. Then came the 1956 Treason Trial and Makgothi, a resident of Sophiatown, ended up in the Fort prison, charged, with 155 others, with high treason. It was during the trial that he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and spent many months in hospital. The charges against him were withdrawn in 1958, but he was constantly harassed and, in 1960, he crossed the border into Bechuanaland (Botswana). Officials in the then British protectorate handed him over to the South African police who charged him with leaving the country without a passport: he was sentenced to 10 years' jail. Two of these he served in Leeuwkop prison before spending the next eight on Robben Island. Banned and restricted after his release, Makgothi managed to escape to Swaziland and, when the ANC established its school and other projects on an abandoned sisal estate north of Morogoro in Tanzania, he was deployed to Somafco. There he contracted malaria, a disease that dogged him for years, but where he also gained a devoted following as "Uncle Commissar" among many of the young students. In the post-exile years, the roles Makgothi played - even as chief whip in the National Council of Provinces - were never high profile. He was happy to be regarded as "just one of the comrades". But he also expected comrades to be treated - and to treat one another - with civility and respect, something he never failed to do. -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . |
