SECTION C:

THE BLACK FACILITATOR’S STORY

In this section, I offer Tshidi’s story as rendered for the purposes of this research. Between January 2005 and March 2006, I followed Schurink’s (1989) approach to produce this rich source of an authentic African experience of South African society and one of its institutions, a marginal gold mine.

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Chapter 4

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY TSHIDI KNOPKIRI119

4.1 FROM OLD LOCATION STREET, MOHLAKENG

I was born on 24 November 1961120 and brought up in the area, at Mohlakeng .121 This location122 was developed on the farm Vergenoeg (“ver genoeg van die Baas af”).123 It had to be far from the white town so that we would not disturb the whities and destroy their peace of mind. Mohlakeng was on the other side of a coloured township with the very sophisticated name Toekomsrus (“hulle het gerus net langs die dorp”).124 This township was developed for the second-class people of the old , the .125

That is where my life started in 1961 – in Randfontein, right in the heart of the gold- mining area of the old .126 I was born in the same year that the Republic of South Africa got its independence from Great Britain.

We are from a divided history, even the very townships, like Mohlakeng. If you critically observed them, you would see they were divided into tribal areas in line with the “divide

119 “Tshidi Knopkiri” is the pseudonym chosen by the participant. “Knopkiri” is a walking stick that is cut from any hardy nearby tree. The knob that serves as handle makes the stick a weapon at the same time. 120 Tshidi’s identity number reflects his date of birth as 24 December, which could be the result of the previous government’s neglect of the administration and registration of black births. The error has never been rectified. 121 Mohlakeng Township is 30 km west of , South Africa. In Sotho, “Mohlakeng” means “place of the reeds” and refers to a stream with thick natural vegetation along which the township developed. 122 Black townships were referred to as “locations” in those days. 123 Far enough from the white boss. 124 “Toekomsrus” is for “future place of rest”, and Tshidi interpreted this to mean the coloureds had a place to rest right next to the white town. 125 A separate Indian community was established at Azaadville, some 8 km from Mohlakeng (Hamman, 2004). 126 One of the four provinces of South Africa before 1994.

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4.2 MY FAMILY

My grandfather was a farmer in the Mafikeng-Lichtenburg area of the old Transvaal and lost his property when the whites just took some land for themselves. We had cattle and land where the old people planted their own mealies and produced their own food. A painful part of our history, but a claim has been registered128 to get our land back.

The most painful part of my life was growing up without knowing where my mother was. What I know is that I had a mother, who divorced my father, and a younger brother born in 1963 and that is all. My brother stayed with my mother and he was later employed by Savuka Mine at , not far from here.

I grew up in a Setswana family with a stepmother and my biological father. They did not allow us to ask too many questions as children.129 I just had to accept it. The Mohlakeng community was a very rigid community with many cultures and a secretive type of life because of the different cultural beliefs and customs.

My father was working for L Suzman, a tobacco company based in Randfontein, before it relocated to . My stepmother was working as a domestic worker for white people. Today they are both still alive. My father met his second wife at Mohlakeng after Madubulaville,130 the old location, was demolished. My father was originally from

127 The Group Areas Act (41 of 1950), which regulated where black people could not live or own land, was abolished in 1986. 128 The Land Restitution Act (22 of 1994), allows for the registration of claims, their investigation and a formal legal process for giving effect to valid claims. 129 Tshidi has no personal pictures, memos or memorabilia from his early childhood. 130 “Madubula” refers to the place where a baboon that lived under the stage of the city hall was shot (Hamman, 2004).

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Mafikeng in the North West Province,131 the then ,132 and my stepmother was from Botswana.

I am the second born of four children, two boys, two girls, and our family lived in Mohlakeng where I was raised by both parents. I had a normal life as a young boy. Our toys were “draadkarre”,133 hand-made from the wire hangers you get from the drycleaners, shoe polish tins as wheels and the streets as your playing ground.

The swimming pool at Mohlakeng was not there in my days as a kid and the soccer stadium was later developed with the further upgrading of our township. Even television was only introduced in the late 1970s, but we never missed those luxuries as kids. We never had any pets and I schooled at Randfontein. All my life’s activities are centred in Randfontein.

4.3 PRIMARY SCHOOL DAYS UNDER BANTU EDUCATION

I attended Malerato134 Primary School, a government school135 in Mohlakeng. That’s how the system was organised, so one didn’t even notice the difference in terms of right or wrong, what is bad or good, but we enjoyed those days as kids. We did not know better.

We attended primary school barefoot and only with basic school uniforms. Raining or snowing, we would go to school; having no shoes or whatever was no excuse. You just had to go to school. We attended school in all weather conditions and we coped well with that.

131 The North West Province is one of the nine provinces of post-apartheid South Africa and borders on to the east and Botswana to the west. 132 Bophuthatswana was declared a self-governing Tswana state by the apartheid government. 133 “Draadkarre” is Afrikaans for toy cars, the size of shoeboxes, with long wires extending from the cars that served as steering wheels for the “drivers”. 134 “Malerato” is a Setswana word for love, motherly love. 135 The apartheid government provided free primary education, strictly organised along the different language or cultural lines.

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We were easily “shambokked”136 at school. The most important disciplinary thing those days was that you couldn’t just stay away from school. When your parents were gone to work, you would even be afraid to meet your neighbour because he or she would question you on why you were there that time of the day. We were so disciplined to attend school that you would not abscond without a good reason.

In our culture, you respect each and every parent and adult that you come across. In our closely linked community you would avoid doing things that are wrong in front of whoever is a person older than you. It is not only a Setswana cultural thing, or for those speaking Setswana, but whoever is an African, also the isiZulu and the isiXhosa people. 137

From Sub A to Standard 2, the first four years of schooling, we had separate schools for Xhosa people and another for Zulus. From Standard 3 onwards there were three non- segregated high schools. That is we could attend the same school as isiXhosa and isiZulu people. We were only separated for classes in our vernacular, when the Xhosas were taught Xhosa grammar and the Basetswanas138 were taught Setswana grammar. But during English, Afrikaans and Biology we would be integrated into one class.

At Malerato Primary School, all classes were in Setswana and it was known as a Setswana school. At Malerato we were still little boys and young, learning by parrot learning so to say. During Afrikaans lessons you would just do those Afrikaans recitations, singing them. The medium of instruction at Malerato was Setswana,139 as we were taught in our vernacular. Small children couldn’t be forced to speak English or Afrikaans. At high school the medium of instruction could be English and Afrikaans.

136 “Shambokked” refers to corporal punishment. 137 Setswana, isiZulu, and isiXhosa are three of the 11 official languages of South Africa. 138 The people who speak Setswana. 139 The educational debate on the use of the vernacular in primary schools is still not concluded in South Africa.

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4.4 SENIOR PRIMARY SCHOOL DAYS

During the 1976 clashes in Soweto140 (by the way, the name has been derived from “southwestern townships”) I attended Weselle Senior Primary School, named after the Methodist missionary,141 John Wesley.

When you graduate to Standard 3, you are in the second phase of primary school life. Now you will be doing Setswana as well as a little bit of English. Weselle was regarded as an integrated Setswana school and offered classes for students from Standard 3 to Standard 6, or Form 2.

Life was still easy-going for us as kids. We had nothing to worry about. We played our games as boys in the veld and in the streets of our township. Soccer was always popular and I participated in our street soccer games. We were so innocent, had no understanding of the real discrimination happening to us, or even that our leaders were in jail or in exile.

We did not realise the white kids had playing grounds with swimming pools, tennis courts and parks with good equipment, as we were never exposed to them or even competed with them at school level. We were also isolated from other townships where people had to live without services, street lights, proper streets, clinics and medical care. I only realised later that none of my family died of diseases such as measles or tuberculosis and that we always had enough to eat. Libraries and a well-organised municipality that removed our refuse, supplied us with clean water and managed the sewerage were accepted as normal township life at Mohlakeng.

140 On 16 June 1976 students in Soweto rose against the forced teaching of Afrikaans in black government schools. Hector Peterson was killed in the uprising when police fired into a crowd of unarmed school children. 141 Western Christian groups established churches in mining areas from 1886, when foreigners started flocking to the new gold-mining towns (Hamman, 2004).

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4.5 HIGH SCHOOL DAYS AFTER THE SOWETO UPRISING

At Weselle High School, a Setswana school, all the teachers were black people and we would only meet white people when we visited the white towns, like Randfontein. We received our basic educational books and equipment from the government or bought them from the local shops. Randfontein also had Indian shops in the white area.

Weselle was not the only high school in our area; there were other secondary schools like Sedimosang and Bulelani. But the majority of people in our township were Setswana speaking. The medium of instruction at high school was English and Afrikaans, although there were attempts to force Afrikaans down as the dominant language and even mathematics was taught in Afrikaans. That was the main issue in the Soweto uprising.

As a youth leader, I was involved in the youth group of my father’s church, the “Belydende Kring”142 of Oom Beyers Naudé, the Dutch Reformed Church preacher who left the white church. We were involved in many projects and outreaches. I did volunteer work with Operation Hunger, who distributed food to the poor people of a homeland143 to the far north of the country.

So many issues disrupted our education that the Reverend Naudé or “Oom Bey” suggested I consider studying Theology in the Netherlands, where he had established support for students in exile. My father did not support the idea of young ministers on the pulpit, or of his son leaving the country as many students did in those years. Students studied in exile and returned, but today, like me, many are disillusioned with their situations and junior positions. To others, their education and studies abroad have been passports to success, as they have taken senior positions in this country.

142 A youth group of the Dutch Reformed Church. 143 The apartheid government created various so-called homelands for the main ethnical groups in rural areas away from the cities. There these groups, such as the Tswana people, could rule themselves, while whites ruled the economically advanced part of South Africa, or “white” South Africa.

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It was in those high school years that I got exposed to the real issues in the Freedom Charter.144 The Azapo145 students, who were against the acceptance of whites and Indians as comrades in the struggle, labelled us “Charterists”, as we associated with the thinking of the people who wrote the Freedom Charter, namely that South Africa should be a fully non-racial society.

We had a remarkable English and history teacher, Bra Moscow. He took time to explain his favourite subject, History. He enjoyed his work and shared with us the prescribed European and South African history. But he also explained the political struggle and our history that were not written in the school books. Bra Moscow made me understand the Freedom Charter better and why our school and township were so disrupted. The wise man is still alive and resides in Mohlakeng.

4.6 LIFE UNDER THE APARTHEID REGIME

If you were born under apartheid, you lived in an apartheid township; you only realised later what the real state of affairs was. Do you know that every thing was segregated, even the trains? First-class coaches for first-class citizens, the whites; second-class coaches for coloureds; and third-class coaches for the majority, the blacks.146

The majority of Mohlakeng people were Setswana speaking, but do not forget that Mohlakeng was divided. You would have a certain area, let us say from the main street to your right-hand side, which would be the Setswana area, and to the left-hand side would be your Xhosa and Zulu-speaking area.

This segregation was forced down in order to differentiate between the various groups. The Zulu guys would say they were going to “Ebatswaneng”, the area where the

144 The Freedom Charter, attached as Appendix E, was adopted at the Congress of the People in Kliptown on 26 June 1955 (ANC, 2005). 145 Azanian People’s Organization. 146 The Population Registration Act (30 of 1950) had four main classifications for people, namely white, coloured, Indian and black, but it also had classifications for Chinese and Koisan people.

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Setswanas lived, and called us “Ebatswaneng” after their name for our area. Everyone had to be classified.

We were never integrated. Zulus, Xhosas and Batswana knew their area and would live within its boundaries. Strictly marked like a soccer field. This was the effect of section 10(1A)147 as well as the Influx Control Act.148 Operate outside those rules, and you end up in jail, as easy as that. Even detained without a court appearance or a fair trial, for up to 30 days. No legal representation, as you had no rights.

All apartheid structures, that is the township administration, the SA Army,149 the Security Police and the SA Police, had to monitor and control the people’s movements. Whenever a visitor came to Mohlakeng, he would see the Bantu Administration Office right at the entrance to the township. The structures were built in such a way that immediately when you entered the township the authorities would know all about your movements.

Everything was controlled. Dogs had licences, bicycles had metal licences and I had to carry a pass book or “dompas”150 all the time. Licences for selling liquor were strictly controlled by whites and trading could not happen without a trading permit.

Although I was born in Mohlakeng, I had to carry a Bophuthatswana identity document.151 When I was 16, I had to go to the Department of the Interior at Krugersdorp and queue there for this document. It also served as my pass book while living in Mohlakeng in South Africa.

147 Group Areas Act (41 of 1950). 148 Influx Control Act (21 of 1923). 149 The SA Army was staffed by white school leavers who had to do two years of compulsory military service, or face up to four years in prison. 150 The “dompas” or “stupid pass” was a kind of identity or reference book, which was introduced to regulate the influx of black people into the white urban areas. 151 Mohlakeng was part of “white” South Africa, and Bophuthatshwana was the homeland created for the Tswana people.

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In the old South Africa, black travellers would first go to the police station and “prove” their own existence and report that they were legally visiting a specific area. “I’m going to visit so and so and this is the address that I am going to visit.” They would take your name and know that at such and such a place there was a visitor. That was their way of monitoring and controlling the local influx of blacks.

The previous government built these square brick houses at Mohlakeng152 and legal occupants paid a 99-year leasehold for them. You were never seen as a permanent resident of your own country.153 The house of my father has only been his legal property since 1999, when the government said that all the people who were residing in those houses at the time would obtain property rights to them. The people were given the title deeds for those houses only after 30 years of renting.

The houses were identical and close together in straight rows, and had three or four rooms, corrugated iron roofs and cement floors. If you were in a four-roomed house, at least you had space. We lived all our life as a family of six people in a house with three small rooms.

We were all born in that Mohlakeng house and my immediate family was never forcefully removed. My parents had an experience of forceful removal before. They had to leave Madubulaville before I was born. Madubulaville was a mixed-group area of Randfontein and the government made it disappear. Nothing is left of that village – just open veld and some new developments.

The practice was that the Municipality or Bantu Administration would just come and say you had never paid your rent and, because of that, they had allocated your house to someone else. You had to move out. No time to prepare, just pack and get dumped. You

152 The forced removal of black people from the mixed-group informal township Madubulaville to Mohlakeng coincided with a formal housing project initiated in the late 1950s (Hamman, 2004). 153 According to apartheid philosophy, black people were citizens of their homelands and not of “white” South Africa.

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We, a family of six, moved to a two-roomed house where we lived during the 1976 unrest. By luck, when a relative who was born in Botswana relocated there, his house was given to us. That is how we managed to occupy a bigger house and today my parents are still residing in that very same house.

4.7 POLITICAL ACTIVITIES UNDER THE STATE OF EMERGENCY

I would like to get to the difficult days of 1976, after 16 June of that year. I was in Standard 5, living only 15 to 20 km from Soweto, a township where members of all the various tribal groups of our country were living. At the time, we were isolated and still a bit blind, but those who were above us, our leadership, could see the bigger picture of what we were faced with.

It was chaos. We were just running around in the township and everyone had to take care of his own life and safety. It was winter, so open fires caused smoke all over the township. We barricaded the streets with burning tyres and any other object to obstruct the movement of the police with their armed Caspirs.154 Petrol bombs and stones were thrown all over. Life and possessions were worthless. You could have been killed for nothing.

What I experienced in those days – if I sit back and look at them again – was chaos. You could be beaten up by the police and the army, bitten by their dogs and even killed for no reason. The black police in the police force, due to their instructions and the type of job that they were doing, were even forced to shoot at their own children or family members.

154 An armed vehicle locally produced for the bush war, but as the townships turned into “war” zones, the Caspirs came to be used in the townships.

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My close family and friends were affected by brutal assaults and even killings at that time. I remember when a guy by the name of KB was shot in the chest and the bullet went through his body and out at his back. I still recall it like yesterday. A live bullet nearly destroyed his life. And they were using live bullets155 on the students, our comrades, armed with nothing but stones.

It was unsafe even to go to the shops to buy milk or bread. The schools were closed, and government property was damaged and set alight by angry mobs all over. The levels of frustration among the angry crowds rose by the day.

A curfew was declared round about 1985, as well as a state of emergency with even more constraining rules. At the time, I was in high school and I remember that I was detained from 25 June 1985, immediately after the state of emergency was declared. I was detained under a section of the Internal Security Act (74 of 1982).

The period after 16 June 1985, nine years after they had killed Hector Petersen in Soweto, was hectic and the tension between the masses and the security forces ran very high in Mohlakeng. It was supposed to be the mid-year examinations for us, the Standard 10s of 1985, but all schools had to be closed as many schools had been set alight.

Detectives came to my father’s house that winter’s night of 25 June 1985 and said I was “dangerous to the community”. I was a good organiser, but never committed any crimes. We participated in the Release Mandela Campaign organised in our area, and for that I had to stay in prison for four months.

155 Although South Africa was isolated through United Nations sanctions, the arms industry produced a mass of arms and ammunition for local consumption and export.

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4.8 MY PRISON DAYS

As I was a student leader, the security branch of the SA Police took me from Mohlakeng to the overcrowded police cells at Krugersdorp, not those at Randfontein.156 I ended up in Diepkloof Prison, known as “Sun City”.157 Although I was never charged, I was detained and informally notified that it was for my political involvement in the UDF (United Democratic Front).

I spent two days in solitary confinement, as I was not prepared to reveal the names of the leaders of the mass action or supply more information on the Release Mandela Campaign in our area. The white policemen in the interrogation room beat me up because I was not prepared to participate in the mind games they were playing in order to get me to help them to get more people arrested and detained.

The cells were normal prison cells with bunk beds, some 20 per cell, with the inmates strictly numbered in alphabetical order. The food was not so bad, and for pastime we were allowed a daily walk along the fences of the prison. We were not allowed to participate in any soccer, read newspapers or listen to radio reports on what was going on in the country.

My bed was the ordinary bunk bed with a thin mattress and those hard prison blankets. You had no privacy and I could not study or write my matric exams, because we were not at school, but confined to Sun City.

Although I was a young man, we were not kept in youth cells, but we never mixed with the bad prison guys or participated in their notorious gang activities. I never required medical attention from the prison’s medical facilities.

156 The Randfontein police cells were notorious for the detainment of dangerous community leaders like Joe Seremane, a guerilla fighter, now an MP (Hamman, 2004). 157 Sun City is a well-known gambling venue and holiday resort, built in the 1980s in Bophuthatswana, while “white” South Africa had strict laws against any form of gambling.

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I learned a lot during my prison experience: That there was hope for a better future, as we had made sacrifices for the good cause of freedom. The teachers and other senior comrades used those four months to teach us about the struggle for freedom, our real history and what the leaders and comrades in exile were doing. We were allowed to sing and pray together, but no formal teaching or skills training took place at Sun City.

They released me after four months, without a formal charge, court appearance or hearing, because of the intervention of the South African Council of Churches (SACC). I know that the release was because of the personal intervention of Oom Bey, but visitors were never allowed to visit us. During my stay in prison I missed my family and friends a lot. My family was only allowed to bring me private clothes, as we did not wear prison clothes.

Strong leaders such as the Reverend Frank Chikane158 and the Reverend Allen Boesak159 led the UDF. The people started to organise at grassroots level, in street committees and organisations, and we mobilised resistance to many injustices. This was the beginning of a mass movement for democracy.

4.9 MY STRUGGLE FOR EDUCATION AND QUALIFICATIONS

I left the prison without a formal qualification in 1986 and was determined to complete my high school education. I enrolled for private part-time studies; one of the options was the local adult centre.160 I knew about the Mohlakeng Department of Education and Training (DET) 161 adult centre and enrolled there. The facilities were shared with an ordinary local school, but it was not that easy to attend classes with all the activities going on in our township.

158 Dr Chikane was the black leader of the Apostolic Faith Mission and today heads the office of our president, Mr Mbeki. 159 Dr Boesak was the coloured leader of the Dutch Reformed Church, which was also segregated along colour lines. 160 The high level of adult illiteracy led to the creation of adult centres, where basic literacy and numeracy classes as well as advanced education were presented. 161 The black department of education.

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The situation brought some pressures, which distracted me from my studies, as did my job searching. But the latter wasn’t successful at all, as the mines were not growing. Some shafts had to close because of the unrest, and many people were unsure about tomorrow. Today, I still have a dream to become a lawyer.

4.10 DETERIORATION IN THE SECURITY AND POLITICAL SITUATION

By the late 1980s, I was no longer the Secretary of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas), as it was banned162 in 1985 in Mohlakeng and all over the country. All the structures and street committees had to operate in secrecy.

Let me take you through the political dynamics of our township. Many organisations were created in our community: street committees, and women’s, church and other groups. We had student groups such as Cosas as well as Azasm (Azanian Student Movement), but there was also internal conflict because of ideological differences.163 The worst conflict was that with the IFP164 or Inkatha in Mohlakeng. The rest of the community turned against the Zulus in our township.

I hate to think about this, because innocent people died for just being Zulus, not for supporting the IFP. No one could think rationally in such a brutal conflict, because if you spoke up, you would be named an “mpimpi”165 or informer166 of the apartheid agents that were all over.

162 Banning of organisations such as the ANC and Cosas was terminated in 1992 by Mr F.W. de Klerk (Hamman, 2004). 163 The adoption of the Freedom Charter by the ANC caused a rift with the Azanian People’s Organisation, who were against the acceptance of whites and Indians as comrades in the struggle, and against a non- racial South Africa. 164 The IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party) is a culture-based political movement of the traditional leaders of KwaZulu, led by Prince Mangosutho Buthelezi. 165 “Mpimpi” is the Zulu word for a spy. 166 The apartheid regime tried to divide the mass democratic movement by abusing the cultural divide and historical differences among the various cultural groups.

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4.11 SEVEN YEARS OF UNEMPLOYMENT: 1985 TO 1992

As I did not have formal employment, I worked as a taverner and ran an equipment rental business for functions or parties, renting tents, tables and chairs to the Mohlakeng community. Although I do not consume alcohol myself, I still believe it is a good business and that I am a good organiser.

I obtained a driver’s licence in Randfontein and I remember driving a Toyota Stout delivery vehicle, which I used for transporting all the tents and chairs and the brewery stock. I was good at my job and enjoyed my job and the responsibilities. I realised the need to build my own career; hence my dream of becoming a lawyer.

The labour situation at Mohlakeng deteriorated, as many mines and other businesses closed down. We saw more street hawkers because of unemployment. Our clothes manufacturing company was gone and I&J relocated. Even today, it is very difficult to find a permanent job.

4.12 MEETING MY WIFE

I met my wife, Puli,167 at a youth meeting of her church, the “Hervormde Kerk”,168 of Mohlakeng, in 1991. She is originally from Botswana, where she attended school. She is very supportive of my development.

We live in a mine house in the suburb Finsbury. We do not have any children. My wife is involved with the Independent Examination Board, where she runs a call centre. We have a dream to run a family business together.

167 “Puli”, or “the rain girl” in Setswana, is a pseudonym. 168 The Reformed Church was a very strict Afrikaans denomination and their name refers to the break from the Catholic Church led by Martin Luther in the 1400s. All the white Afrikaans church groups had separate black “sister churches”.

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4.13 EMPLOYMENT ON THE MINES

I took it upon myself to find a better and permanent job. The search for employment was intense. I visited a nearby mine and joined ABC Mine169 in 1992 as a labourer. I spent six months underground in the PTV170 team, installing pipes, underground loco tracks and ventilation equipment. We had many ordinary guys that could use basic equipment like a shovel to move rock after it had been blasted into fine material.

ABC was a gold mine with open-pit as well as deep underground operations. ABC employed many thousands of people. The majority were from the homelands or neighbouring states and had to stay in the old mine hostels. Some of these mine hostels have now been converted into private prisons, a lung hospital and private businesses. I was fortunate and stayed on at my father’s place. I even got a living-out allowance for not staying in a mine hostel. ABC was a good employer with leave, medical care and even a provident fund.

I worked underground as a PTV team member for a period of six months and then I was transferred to the Metallurgical Plant in Randfontein. The plant is a better workplace as it is on the surface, and not that hot, smelly and wet. You could see the sun while you were working and the plant was right next to Mohlakeng.

My dream of a better education was not forgotten. I enrolled again, but due to a lack of finances, I struggled to complete my ABET practitioner’s course through Unisa.171

I continued to participate in work and community affairs. I joined the NUM172 and was elected as a leader of the majority union, which was also part of the ANC, the party who won the first democratic election in 1994. Many things changed all over and even the mines started to listen to what we as the NUM had to say.

169 “ABC Mine” is a pseudonym. 170 “PTV” is mine jargon for pipes, tracks and ventilation. 171 Unisa (the University of South Africa) offers distance education. 172 National Union of Mineworkers.

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In the year 1995, I was seconded by the NUM management team to implement change management through business process re-engineering (BPR) in ABC. It was a new experience to me as well as the other participants, as management had never before allowed any input to their plans or activities.

My being part of the union leadership really had a positive impact, as I gained more life experience and new business skills. The experience allowed me to understand what are the needs of employers and, on the other side, the interests of labourers. I can really say I acquired an innovative management skill.173 ABC itself was positive about and innovative in joint decision-making.

The co-operation continued until 1999, when XYZ Mining174 took over ABC in a hostile legal bid and I was seconded to the position of SDF (Skills Development Facilitator) in Randfontein.

4.14 TAKE-OVER OF ABC

ABC was at the forefront of so many developments. It looked well after its people and offered many benefits, such as community schools, villages, buses, training centres, ABET and even the Randfontein Club.

The take-over was a very stressful process, because the unions learned about the court ruling through the media. If the board of directors of the company was ordered to step down, you could imagine what would happen to the ordinary person, the labourer far away from the fire. There was a period of total shock when managers were just informed that they did not have to come back tomorrow. They were not required any more. They had no business with the new owners. They were retrenched. Just that. There was nothing further to say.

173 ABC Mine offered a formal programme in creating innovative management solutions (course material still in the possession of Tshidi). 174 “XYZ Mining” is a pseudonym.

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XYZ cut costs by retrenching all of the ABC management overnight. Even salaries were cut to introduce the new XYZ structure. Employees were uncertain about the future of their employment as the “No Frills” and “Mine the XYZ Way” concepts were introduced. The Randfontein Club was privatised and the mine was now without a golf course, perhaps the only mine without one.

Even though some things were good, lack of communication saw to it that no one was supportive of the good things. All the people were governed by fear of the unknown. The people were unsure and could not trust management. Even our training centre ran empty and was eventually demolished.

4.15 NEW LABOUR LAWS

Since 1994, the new government introduced many laws to get rid of apartheid and to allow participation of the people in all structures where the masses could give no input before.

Being an active member of the NUM during the inception of the new laws by the Department of Labour (DOL), I got involved in development initiatives prescribed by these laws. Under the Skills Development Act (97 of 1998), I also found myself being seconded to the position of Co-Skills Development Facilitator (Co-SDF).

Part of my frustration arose from being a Co-SDF. I have noticed that the new XYZ management just assumes what people’s training needs are. XYZ does not share with the union’s associations its strategic planning, vision and mission.

As it is now five years since the take-over, I think it is important that we understand XYZ Mining’s plans for:

• Affirmative action

• Black economic empowerment

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• The Mining Charter

• The talent pool

• Women in mining

• Unemployed graduates

• ABET and further education

• Skills levies

• Skills development plans

• Study assistance

• Formal meetings to jointly plan the implementation of strategies and policies.

• Recognition of labour representatives in the skills development process

As Skills Development Facilitator from a previously disadvantaged group, you are not listened to, irrespective of your qualifications, formal knowledge or insider knowledge.

4.16 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT ON THE GOLD MINES

Training on the gold mines has been a big thing with plenty of money, but even today it is not as effective as it should be. The problem is lack of training that is designed or tailored for the mining industry.

The current people development does not take note of the needs of the people. Many people need study and financial assistance in order to improve their skills and

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Employees wish to live their own dreams or desires at XYZ, but you do not see them realising their dreams or desires. The majority are frustrated because financial problems prevent them from furthering their studies and improving their lives.

4.17 MY FRUSTRATIONS AS A SKILLS DEVELOPMENT FACILITATOR

When I started working as skills development facilitator, there was no support and no infrastructure in place to comply with the legal requirements of the Skills Development Act (97 of 1998). The absence of such a support system continues. I do not have access to the policies and procedures of XYZ Mining, and no proper quality management system is operating as required by law. Hence one cannot even monitor training and development. Employment equity and the utilisation of trained people within the system cannot be tracked, as appointments just happen. The available skills from the talent pool are not utilised, which leads many qualified young black candidates to leave the organisation.

Most frustrating are situations where adversity management is needed, and you are not given an opportunity to come up with interventions that can balance the culture and mindset. It is very frustrating when no one wants to come clear about strategic plans that support the training and development required by the National Skills Development Strategy of South Africa.

What I can point out to you, is that managing training or any type of business in silos has never proven to be successful. Instead, one is always faced with a frustrated workforce and even more skills migration to greener pastures outside XYZ.

Our training and development do not address the imbalances of the past or even close the skills gaps, and no succession plans are in place. It is difficult for managers to compile a report on the skills needed if skills audits and literacy audits are not given

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4.18 MY UNION BACKGROUND AND ROLE

I got involved in the union when I joined ABC Mine as an ordinary member way back in 1992. The following year I was elected as a section steward at the Metallurgical Plant. As time went by, I became a member of an education steering committee of ABC and also participated in the ABC strategic accord on the development of policies.

The NUM has to be at the forefront of many changes at the workplace, and as a member I had to confront a gold plant manager at C Plant in 1994 about separate ablution facilities.175 The mines were a bit slow in introducing radical changes, even after most of the apartheid signs and practices were removed.

In those days, ABC was led by the new management team of Mr MK.176 Having been an active member of the NUM when the DOL (Department of Labour) drafted the new laws, I think I can assist in the implementation of a good training system for XYZ Mining. By law, we have to work together for the improvement of the skills of our people and we do submit plans each year, but where is the service delivery?

4.19 OUR FIRST DEMOCRATIC ELECTION IN 1994

There was so much excitement during out first democratic election. Imagine a situation where all the doors of life were opened. We got access to many things that we had been deprived of.

The feeling was just like that of a bird that was locked in a cage, and then suddenly the door was left open.

175 Separate amenities were commonplace during the apartheid era. 176 “Mr MK” is a pseudonym.

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The transition to the Government of National Unity177 impacted very positively on our lives, as we managed to learn about “forgiving and forgetting”, even though one cannot easily forget the legacy of apartheid. That moment of transition led to laws that today are propelling us in the right direction – of tolerance and being the rainbow nation of South Africa. And our constitution speaks of development and education for all.178

Let us also think about the leaders who brought us this far, Mr Roelf Meyer and Mr Cyril Ramaphosa,179 guys who negotiated our safety and security under the new constitution. Look around in our continent – people envy this country. So thanks to the Almighty who made it possible for us to survive bad memories.

4.20 LIFE IN THE MINING INDUSTRY

The mining industry is one of the most brutal places you can ever think of. You know, when I joined mining, I just thought of more money, development and progress. People were housed in hostels; only a few were allowed to have their families with them at Randfontein, and they were accommodated in the mine married quarters. When you were in a senior position, you were accommodated in a well-built house.

What I have learned is that, until 1986, black employees had not benefited from or contributed to a pension fund or any retirement fund. Only white artisans, white miners and white officials received company contributions to pension funds. Black people were also prevented from career advancement by the application of a “closed shop agreement” that barred them from becoming artisans on the mines. The rules of Europe

177 Chapter 3 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, describes the notion of co-operative government. 178 Article 29(1) of the constitution, attached as Appendix G, states that “[e]veryone has the right to a basic education, including Adult Basic Education; and to further education”. 179 Mr Cyril Ramaphosa is a founding member of the NUM and served as General Secretary during the struggle years. Today he is a successful businessman.

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In the 1980s, the NUM (the National Union of Mineworkers) was not recognised, but all the white unions sat with the COM (the Chamber of Mines). The NUM started to negotiate for a retirement or provident fund with the COM, which fund came in place in June 1989. Black miners in this industry only started to build a retirement fund from that date.

I remember that just after my marriage I wanted to have my own house as XYZ employee. I went to the housing management, only to learn that the company had announced its selling of some houses. This arrangement was never publicly communicated. My job category was too low to qualify for buying a company house and they offered me rental accommodation at the family quarters in Skoonplaas.181 I refused to live there and later qualified for buying a mine house at Finsbury, a historical white township outside Randfontein.

4.21 FAMILY DREAMS AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

I recently registered a closed corporation with the intention that our family members should benefit from it and to ensure that some could even earn a living out of it. We have many unemployed youngsters in our extended family and my wish is to see all the family members join in and enjoy this initiative. We need to provide our own people with a helping hand, whether it be in farming, building construction or even building maintenance. Today we have many opportunities and I want to benefit from the initiatives available.

To take it further, I am also involved in a community development project. For the past five years, I served on the committee of Mohlakeng’s disabled centre. The name of the

180 Only competent white persons could obtain a blasting certificate and so progress in their career. 181 “Skoonplaas” (“clean farm”) was the nickname for the mine’s low-cost housing scheme for black married people, built some distance away from the white housing schemes.

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I wish I could spend more time in the platteland182 or rural areas, as I am interested in general farming and the breeding of cattle. Our current problem is visible in the rural areas and, if you pay them a visit, you notice that there is no empowerment and a general lack of skills development. People in the rural areas do not use the resources they have available.

4.22 NEW SKILLS DEVELOPMENT ACT AND OUR COMMUNITY

There are so many interpretations when it comes to what our government wants us to do. Hence there are so many training providers that provide NQF (National Qualifications Framework) training.

Through different SETAS (Sector Education and Training Authorities), funds from the National Skills Fund (NSF) are made accessible. The Department of Labour guides communities to identify those who want to develop skills in order to alleviate poverty and unemployment.

Some companies have entered into social plan agreements with organised labour organisations to skill their employees while still employed. The intention is to enable employees to face the outside world with skills and the ability for further employment or even job creation when they are retrenched due to operational requirements or even liquidation.

I have even considered registering as a service provider or training organisation to deliver skills development to the rural communities or perhaps at Mohlakeng.

182 “Platteland” is an Afrikaans word for the countryside.

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4.23 MY EXPERIENCES OF THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA

After ten years of democracy, one started to see things that were very different from what they were before. The current national focus is on international and local economic growth to ensure a sustainable level of foreign investor confidence.

We have areas such as housing where the new ANC government was not able to improve on the living standards of the past. Mohlakeng never had a squatter camp with tin shacks; now it is all over. Provincial or national government cannot achieve the promise of no shacks by 2010; all should have RDP183 houses.

The disabled are still struggling as in the past and the number of spaza shops184 and street vendors is a symptom of our high levels of unemployment. Xenophobia, or the dislike of foreigners, is an unspoken topic, and though not visible, is a harsh reality, whereby foreigners that are now part of our economic activities are harassed. The masses cannot dream of a good tomorrow as long as job insecurity lasts.

All the barriers of discrimination with regard to ownership have been eradicated and people buy property and assets in an open market. Many initiatives address unemployment, but this area requires urgent attention to facilitate more new permanent job opportunities.

I regard the new Department of Education as a model of transformation down to grassroots level. The doors of learning have opened to many disadvantaged learners and changes in the education system through bench marking have brought us in line with international standards.

In the past ten years, South Africa has been the role model of democracy and we lead many peace initiatives as well as the new African Parliament based in Midrand. We have

183 RDP is the acronym for the Reconstruction and Development Programme that followed the 1994 election. 184 A spaza shop is the informal small retail shop in the townships that stocks basic household goods.

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Personally, I was challenged by the manner in which I found myself being involved in human development and other related issues. Therefore, I decided to focus on training and development studies for the time being, and during 2004 I acquired my Human Resource Management Diploma. I also obtained my ETDP185 qualification and the next phase is to convert my existing qualifications into a B Tech degree in Human Resource Development.186

4.24 TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN XYZ MINING

It is not fair to compare ABC with XYZ, as they are worlds apart. ABC had a system of delivery to satisfy development needs, while XYZ follows a strange way of conducting their training. The delivery of training takes place, even though it is just a drop in the ocean, but it is done in isolation.

My personal concern is that we do not comply with the basic requirements for an approved quality management system for training and development. We operate without personal development programmes, clear or proper career pathing and succession plans.

4.25 DEVELOPMENT SERVICES THAT ABC RENDERED

The community of Randfontein knew ABC Mine as a loyal corporate citizen that treated development as an intervention that went far beyond mining. Engineering, mining and

185 Education, Training and Development Practitioner. 186 Tshidi enrolled with the Central University of Technology in 2005.

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A variety of courses were offered and some of the most useful ones included basic motor mechanics, bricklaying and other practical skills that changed the lives of many previous employees. The programmes were very popular and the NUM supported the development of our members.

XYZ Mining’s approach to training and development is difficult to describe, as you cannot trust members of management individually and the structures keep on changing.

4.26 INVOLVEMENT OF THE UNIONS IN TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Many years back the unions did not pressurise for training, as many other issues such as recognition, wages and CONOPS187 were more urgent matters. The unions were always supportive of the development and training of our people, as they were deprived of that for all the years of apartheid. It is also important to put pressure on management to acknowledge training as a need so as to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of employees if we want the business to continue.

Due to new legislation, unions join in decision-making on training and development; hence they influence development and have to report to the MQA188 as well as the Department of Labour on prescribed areas. I am involved in the development of workplace skills plans (WSPs) and the annual training report (ATR) for this area of XYZ Mining. All ATRs have a section on employment equity, namely “EE Plan”, and this plan has to reflect historical figures as well as potential figures for a certain period in advance.

187 CONOPS stands for “continued operations”, including Sunday mining, which used to be illegal. 188 Mining Qualifications Authority.

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4.27 SKILLS DEVELOPMENT IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA

Our new constitution regards training and development as basic human rights of all South Africans. Many legal structures and government departments share in this responsibility and introduced strategies for service delivery.

• Department of Labour (DOL)

Through the legal framework and many interventions of the DOL, each South African citizen has access to training, and people are encouraged to register with any of the various service providers, which include small business enterprises (SMEs), non- governmental organisations (NGOs), tertiary institutions and the various employers, such as XYZ Mining. We all share in the upliftment of the people of South Africa as well as the many skills issues that face this country.

The DOL introduced the Skills Development Act (97 of 1998), each industry has its Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta) to regulate human development, and the MQA is the Seta for the mining industry.

• Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA)

The objectives of the MQA are to monitor and implement training within the mining sector, and to follow the correct standard as per the legislation. The MQA sets strategic targets as required by the National Skills Development Strategy of the DOL.

The framework of the MQA enables employers, employees and the government to develop jointly a common understanding of training and development in the workplace.

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• National Union of Mineworkers (NUM): Role in Skills Development

The role of the NUM is to protect the rights of employees and, jointly with management, create a co-operative workplace. The NUM bargains for its members and negotiates on their behalf for improved working conditions and benefits.

The responsibility to participate in the training and development initiatives is a new responsibility, although the NUM structures still have branch educators as well.

4.28 CURRENT SKILLS DEVELOPMENT SITUATION IN XYZ MINING

XYZ Mining’s concept of training and development sounds good on paper, but the whole problem is who leads this transformation. Training managers used to operate in isolation and experience the new joint processes and changes as a threat to their positions and power. Some training managers even turn training centres into dumping sites where they hide people who are problematic or hold different opinions. Young people asking too many questions are being sent away without a proper development plan or a mentor to facilitate development. We treat our talent like equipment.

The Skills Development Act provides for a joint and collaborative development structure and we have, as per formal agreement, a Human Resource Development (HRD) Committee at corporate or company level. The reality is that the HRD Committee has been non-functional for the past two years. This central structure is supposed to be supported by the development structures of each of our 12 mines or operations and each of some 40 000 employees of XYZ Mining.

Skills committees exist and there are agreements that regulate the responsibilities of the NUM and management on a range of operational issues such as ABET and other skills training initiatives.

It is frustrating for an SDF or Co-SDF to notice that management unilaterally decides what the people’s training needs and requirements are. These requirements are then fed

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The unions and associations are not given access to the company’s strategic planning, vision and mission. As skills development facilitator from the previously disadvantaged group, you are not listened to, irrespective of your qualifications, knowledge, experience or insights.

4.29 SOLUTION FOR HUMAN RESOURCE AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

The integration of human resource development and human resource management can be an answer to the current situation of silos in managing people and their development. The entire company needs a single planning and implementation process for its 12 operations.

We have the people that can do it!

4.30 CONCLUSION

I want to end this discussion in a good spirit:

My suggestion to those who want to build a successful company or business is:

Get your infrastructure right, meaning management and leaders that will be continuously transforming and be able to lead transformation.

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