Masakaneng roots get recorded

Recollections of hardships, happiness, challenges and celebrations all form part of the rich history of the settlement of Masakaneng in Seshego’s Zone 1, which is entrenched in the memories of those who initially settled there after being forcefully removed from the then New Pietersburg half a century ago. The journey of the people of the neighbourhood is now the basis for research destined to ultimately culminate in an intended book steered by local resident Martha Manamela-Tladi.
She has taken it upon herself to gather and pen information accumulated during discussions with others in remembrance of their roots and happenings of the past 50 years. Many of her neighbours are elderly community members she has known all her life, since having settled in “the place of sacks” with her parents in 1966 as a young girl.
She explains that the area was named after the shacks built from discarded maize and coal bags and cardboard in New Pietersburg, which nowadays is known as Disteneng. According to Manamela-Tladi an estimated 100 families were the first to occupy four- and five-room houses in the area. A year and a half later the number had grown to around 800 families and the huge influx of people at the time was boosted by the arrival of job-seekers from rural areas like the then Bochum and Ga-Malebogo, she says. It gave rise to the occupation of the Ten Ten Makgoahleng men’s hostel on the far side of the settlement, she adds.
The corner shop some two blocks away is one of the unmistakable pointers in the area. According to Manamela-Tladi there was no other activity or infrastructure in the area, forcing residents to buy food in New Pietersburg several kilometres away which gave them the opportunity to visit family members who happened to stay behind during the relocation process. It was easier to get their own food gardens going than having to walk all the way for purchasing foodstuffs. They were not affected by incidents of crime and people were neighbourly, she says. Masakaneng, she remembers, grew very fast and contributed to the mushrooming of the greater Zone 1. It produced its fair share of newsmakers. Manamela-Tladi presents as a reminder a clipping from Polokwane Observer’s edition of 12-13 June 2008 when the community threw a party for one of their own, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Commander-in-Chief Julius Malema who grew up in the neighbourhood. Like him several other individuals have been flying the Masakaneng flag all these years.
Manamela-Tladi remembers her ’67 enrolment at Mponegele Lower Primary School, a landmark that served as feeder school to Kgobokanang Higher Primary School along with Phishego Lower Primary School. The first principal of Mponegele Lower Primary School, Joyce Lesibe, is among those individuals approached to share their Masakaneng memories. In the cool lounge of her house opposite the road from the school a Saturday morning interview revolves around the revisiting of occurrences characterising life there, starting with the first intake of learners on the second Tuesday of February 1966. Construction work and the relocation process from New Pietersburg prevented occupation of the buildings during the first month, she explains. Teaching commenced without an office or furniture and writing was done on a window sill. Schooling kicked off with three classes, composed of an estimated 100 kids, divided into double sessions in the mornings and early afternoons simultaneously accommodating learners from two grades. She stresses that the principal’s posting was her first and that they were young and worked hard. Left without access to a phone she had to catch the 14:00 bus to town to personally deliver messages to the Department of Education, she recalls.

The 83-year-old ex-headmistress who retired in 1996 after tutoring up to four generations from some families in certain instances agrees to a walk to the gates of Mponegele Primary School for a photo. She admits to her doctor having prescribed exercise. During the stroll back to her house, she points out that vacant land adjacent to the school yard served as sporting facilities back then and the staffing component of seven women staying in dwellings opposite the school as per instruction of the erstwhile municipal superintendent, a certain Mr Bezuidenhout.
Celebrating her 85th birthday on Saturday, the newspaper interview was a trip down memory lane for Paulina Masenya who was among the first to settle in Masakaneng from New Pietersburg. They were very happy with their new domestic arrangements, which meant roomy brick structures with water connection for gardening purposes and inside or outside ablution facilities respectively. Having stayed on in Masakaneng since her husband had passed on in 1988, she raises the concern that the house they had occupied together was never registered in her name and she has never acquired the title deed for the house due to the fact that one of her names is not reflected on their marriage certificate. She is quick to point out that she considers Masakaneng her home and has never harboured the thought of moving elsewhere.
To her it is a place that produced happy memories… of men swapping their clothes for dresses and women changing into overalls, dobbs and boots on what used to be referred to as Dingaan’s Day on 16 December, of the community gathering on Christmas Day and of sharing vetkoek and traditional beer during those get-togethers. Pretty much in the same vein as collaborating 50 years later to record a part of history that cannot be left untold.

Story and photos: YOLANDE NEL
>>observer.yolande@gmail.com

Featured photo: Joyce Lesibe and Martha Manamela-Tladi at the gates of Mponegele Primary School.