Many of the people relocating in Boekenhoutfontein had been dropped off by government trucks from a location known as Lady Selbourne, on the slopes of the Magaliesberg mountain range, north of Pretoria.
David Kabe — a teacher with a remarkable compassion for education — nudged the people to each donate a pole, crooked nails, wire or flat iron, so as to build a school to accommodate the little ones.
The man who sold fruit and vegetables — known as Kitchen Boy — offered the use of his old Chevrolet truck without charge, and the Chinaman at Makuloo Hopaan Trading Store dropped off bags of cement on site.
Many others dropped a penny, five bob or even a five-pound note, into a hat doing the rounds at a community meeting.
Truncheon under the armpit, Vimbi, the retired night-watchman, offered to stand guard overnight and keep the collected material safe.
Come the day of the building of the school, the women brought along “driepoot” pots and firewood, to do the cooking for the workmen of Boekenhoutfontein.
Old man Songwana Mabena, he of the rolled moustache and teeth stained brown by tobacco, removed nails sticking from his mouth, and grabbed a pickaxe with both hands.
The old man pursed his lips into a snarl, spun and hurled the pickaxe into the air, at the same time emitting a whistle borrowed from the weaverbird.
Mabena then spat into his palms, quickly rubbed both hands together and, with the speed of lightning, caught the pickaxe before it landed on his balding mane, and brought the pointed end crashing into the ground.
The women doing the cooking responded with shrills, and the men whistled wildly at such formidable strength from one so old.
Someone grabbed a shovel to clear up the mounds of soil dug out by the pickaxe.
The workmen of Boekenhoutfontein heaved up the poles and placed them upright, followed by rafters.
Flattened iron sheets were lifted and dragged further upwards by men standing on creaking, self-made scaffolds.
At completion of the structure, the community chose to name the new school Lady Selbourne Community School, in memory of the place down the slopes of the Magaliesberg, from whence they were all removed in terms of the Group Areas Act.
— This column is a re-invention of an excerpt from Johnny Masilela’s novel, We Shall Not Weep.
