Lizo Zakhe sits in a worn-out armchair in his small house in Joza. He wears a green and gold t-shirt and a pair of sandals rest alongside him.
A scar beneath his right eye marks his face. On the other side of town, Terence Beard sits in an armchair in his modest house in central Grahamstown.
Lizo Zakhe sits in a worn-out armchair in his small house in Joza. He wears a green and gold t-shirt and a pair of sandals rest alongside him.
A scar beneath his right eye marks his face. On the other side of town, Terence Beard sits in an armchair in his modest house in central Grahamstown.
He is wearing a white collared shirt and brown slacks. His socks are visible through his sandals. Both these men fought the same struggle against the apartheid government but have never met.
Zakhe was first jailed in 1969 when he was 18 years old and still at school. “I was in that uniform for 14 days. My white shirt was turning yellow.”
He leans back into his chair clasping his hands above his head. “It was terrible”. “The police would put
a sack over your head and choke you,” he says.
Cockroaches littered the floor of the little zinc box of a jail. Today he wondered if he would ever see his parents again. He looks at the portrait of his parents’ wedding day.
His eyes moisten. His words falter. “Sorry, guys”. Beard modestly speaks about others who fought in the struggle. “John Sutherland attacked the government way back”.
He talks about Zachariah Matthews who was on trial for treason and helped draft the basis of the freedom charter.
Ambrose “Gumbo” Makiwane was an “incredible leader”. He lists a host of others involved in the struggle intimating his own involvement was “nothing big”.
Zakhe’s heroes were closer to home. He speaks of how his Uncle Solomon inspired him to fight against apartheid. He became active in the struggle and led the student organisation at Uitenhage High School, in 1975. He then became involved in the resistance organisations in Joza.
As an ANC member, he focussed on generating information against the government. He and his comrades would distribute pamphlets, give speeches and hold debates about the perils of apartheid.
Zakhe reflects on the bantu education system. He leans forward in his chair. They knew that undermining the education system would kill the nucleus of government oppression.
Beard was a philosophy lecturer at Rhodes University from 1960 to 1967. He then becameacting head of department and subsequently professor of politics until 1991.
He attributes his political views to his time in the United Kingdom. With a wry grin he says he was always anti-government.
A member of the Liberal Party, he was detained and subsequently banned under the Suppression of Communism Act.
This was due to his meetings with ANC leaders and sending information abroad, which revealed incidents of police brutality. Under this ban he was not permitted to speak to more than one person at a time.
“So many people were worse off than I was,” he reflects. Both men suggest their contribution was nothing extraordinary. Both men remember the tyranny of the apartheid government.On 21 March, they will quietly reflect on the struggle and the freedoms they have won.
