Have you ever wondered how little — if any — writing is available on the nation’s discourse about blacks who supported Apartheid?
You have to bear with me when I place on record that charity has to begin at home.
My late father, the Kleinfontein Farm School headmaster Reuben Mlindi Masilela, was shaped by the NG Kerk, in terms of bursary and academic development.
But that does not mean Reuben Masilela was not independent of mind.
If you asked me to describe my father in a single paragraph, I would say he was a man who was prepared to earn as little as possible, as long as this was for the benefit of the education of the black child.
And up until this day I have met his products, ranging from a member of parliament to a truck driver, who all declare they are what they are because of the headmaster’s strict demeanour and swishing cane.
That brings to mind a one-on-one I had with former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, on the occasion of the burial of Bantustan strongman, Lucas Mangope.
I got curious that this former political prisoner and stalwart of the Pan African Congress travelled all the way from Johannesburg to Zeerust to pay his last respects to a supposed political “sellout”.
Moseneke took me back to the time he, Roelf Meyer and Mac Maharaj, were dispatched by Codesa to declare to Mangope that the game was over.
In Moseneke’s own words, Mangope dared him that he (Mangope) and the former deputy chief justice’s father, the late Sam Moseneke, had plans for Dikgang to acquire the best education available, only for the PAC stalwart to end up on Robben Island.
And so the Moseneke family had to make an appearance, come what may.
You see, Lucas Mangope, Sam Moseneke and Patrice Motsepe’s father, ABC Motsepe, were a threesome of old schoolteachers and bosom friends who were uncompromising as far as the education of the black child was concerned.
Lo and behold, for Reuben Masilela must be turning in his grave.
There were many other blacks who — rightfully or wrongfully — rejected the armed struggle of the ANC and PAC, chief among them Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
Some of South Africa’s yesteryear’s wealthiest blacks, such as HM Pitje, Mshengu Tshabalala and Richard Maponya, indirectly supported the system of Apartheid.
All three men voluntarily — against fierce opposition from the ANC mission in exile — became members of the erstwhile Urban Bantu Councils.
And oh, a loud cheer to Richard Maponya for driving — in his top-of-the-range BMW — Nelson Mandela from the then Jan Smuts Airport, shortly after Madiba’s release from prison.
