Deputy Mayor Eugene Modise: Pain of apartheid always stays

From playing soccer on gravel in Mabopane to marching with Chris Hani to the Union Buildings, the city of Tshwane’s deputy mayor Eugene Modise was fulfilling the promise he made to himself to fight for freedom.

Modise is also the city’s MMC for finance and the ANC Tshwane chair. He was born in Atteridgeville and grew up in Mabopane during apartheid.

“Growing up in Mabopane was a cocktail of many things. The regime was brutal and from time to time we would see those yellow police bakkies.

“We were not allowed to congregate as young people; it was difficult for us to entertain ourselves because the atmosphere and environment did have a conducive environment for playing. We used gravel and peaches to play soccer and athletics.”

“We ran and played with bare feet, but it made us strong. Instead of crying about it, it made us love each other. We spent a lot of time on the street rather than at home because at home it was congested and dense.

“We couldn’t sleep appropriately, we slept on the floor in the living room, that’s how we grew up.”

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Modise ventured into business at a young age as a hawker before his matric year. “I was selling different stuff, because some things were seasonal like fruit at the trains. In matric, on Fridays, we went to Soshanguve station to sell.

“When the new station opened in Mabopane it gave us more space to sell to our customers and our business kept growing until we were too many and it started cutting into our profits – so I started selling clothes,” he said.

Because Modise excelled in mathematics and science he got the opportunity to further his studies, which initially led to him studying optometry at the University of Limpopo and there became involved with politics as part of the South African Students Congress (Sasco).

“There was one Afrikaner lecturer that hated me with a passion after I made fun of him for not being able to pronounce medical terms correctly,” he said.

After Modise and two of his friends were reported and expelled, he returned home where he registered at Intech and studied international marketing management and later, at Vista University in 1991, for his BCom while pursuing politics.

“The biggest march we attended was led by Hani and Tokyo Sexwale. That day Hani took our hands in Brown Street and we marched together to the Union Buildings where Sexwale addressed us.

“What Sexwale said on that day chilled me: ‘De Klerk, you are occupying that seat illegally, you should pack your bag and go now.’ Since that day I have owed it to myself to proceed with what Hani fought for,” he said.

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Modise continued growing his business as a vendor until he could buy his first taxi, which saw him venturing into the taxi, security and construction industries while climbing the political ladder.

“Then I realised I wanted to open a foundation. Because of how I grew up, I had to assist those many other individuals who, like me, came from difficult environments.”

The foundation assisted with everything from tuition fees, food, transport, stationery and school shoes and also established a local soccer tournament. Modise is a die-hard soccer supporter but refused to reveal who he supports locally, saying sports were similar to politics.

“Because of where I grew up, apartheid was my enemy number one and how they treated us. There was a time when we could not walk as three or convene as three – only two can talk and walk, but the third one must never.

“If you were three you were going to be arrested and I was arrested during a boycott to stay away from work and school,” he said.

Modise describes apartheid as an intense and bad time.

“Police knew where I stayed so every police operation in the area started at my place, then my friend and then my cousin’s place. This was at any given time, so there was no peace in our environment, which caused problems at home. My granny told me I was a problem and we had a police presence in the area because of me.”

“I tried to explain to her, but she didn’t understand. Our grandparents didn’t want to fight against apartheid, but we couldn’t stomach it,” he said.

Modise describes his grandmother as a meticulous perfectionist who taught him to get up early in the morning.

“She was a morning person and I love her because she trained me properly. In the morning she would say: ‘There is no person who will succeed in life by sleeping at this time of the day. When the sun rises you must be up.’”

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