This book is about the Detainee's Parents Support Committee which was headed by Max and Audrey Coleman whose sons were detained by the apartheid government. It was a committee that helped to support families who went through the trauma of being woken up in the dead of night by the knock on the door and having a family member taken by the police. In a system where people were detained without trial or charge for that matter, were interrogated and tortured, where the families were not even informed where their family member was taken and where black families in particular did not have access to legal representation or knowledge; this committee fulfilled a huge role. The committee made sure that information travelled from families to detainees and also provided basic necessities to detainees such as clothing and food and support.
The reason why I liked this book in particular was that I was learning so much that I have had little knowledge of in general and it is always necessary to fill in the gaps in our minds because it is in the details where we are reminded of our past as South Africans and it is the details that reinforce how to not easily forget what happened before 94.
Max was said to be quite particular about documenting everything and that information was used during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that took place after 94 which was really cool for me. As much as I think the TRC had its limitations, the fact that Max had the foresight to keep record was really great and provided the TRC a lot of the information it needed.
THE WAR ON CHILDREN
This chapter was the most interesting to me. Tomorrow, South Africa will be commemorating June 16, 1976 with a public holiday. This book went deep into just how badly black children were treated during apartheid. I mean, most of us are familiar with how thousands of children were massacred but there is a lot of information that I personally did not know which further widened my eyes.
'I don't think anywhere in the world has there been such a vicious, assertive action against youth and children as there was in South Africa'
The number of children that were detained is just shocking. The entire student body of Hlingwe School (1200) was arrested. I mean, wow! The youngest child who was detained was 9 years old and the book provides details on how, for example, a child walking to the shops was just picked up by the police just like that without the parents being informed.
'What does the world think of a government a third of whose political detainees are schoolchildren? and just how does an 11 year old threaten the security of the state, particularly this state with all its military might? This government, in releasing these children, is starting to admit it has no answers to such questions.'
OPERATION PHAMBANE & AN EMERGENCY AWARD
Operation Phambane also offered a lot of insight pertaining the longest hunger strike in this country. The hunger strike was called Sidla Ekhaya meaning we eat at home which was a strike against detention without trial. It took place at Diepkloof prison and one of the detainees, Sandile Thusi, went 38 days without eating and left the prison bedridden and on oxygen.
Black people, particularly those who got hurt during a protest, were not able to go to the hospital because the police would wait for the wounded there and then proceed to arrest them. Black people who were in need of medical care had to find other ways of getting it and the chapter called an emergency ward details how the DPSC worked around those restrictions and how a handful of skilled medical professionals placed themselves at risk to give black people the medical attention they needed.
ASSASSINATIONS
South Africa's death squad is something most of us know quite a bit about and we also know anyone active in anti-apartheid activity would likely be gunned down in their driveway. David Webster suffered the same fate but I think what just highlighted the egregiousness of his murder was the fact that he was told in advance that he would be killed, in no uncertain terms, at a tea party (gathering) by a police officer; a week later he was dead.
PRAVIN GORDHAN
When Pravin Gordhan was arrested for the third time of which he said that his detention was part of a winning advantage and having leverage over the ANC in the negotiating process. This reminded me of a poem from Azanian Love Song by Don Mattera. The poem is called Shattering Glass but I am only including the part of the poem that is relevant particularly to what Pravin said.
'Don't bargain with oppression
There's no time, man
Just no more time
for the black man
to fool around'
When I look at what South Africa is now and think of what Pravin said, I wonder what price was paid for bargaining with oppression.
ON THE SIDE
Casspirs aka Hippos are these mine resistant army vehicles (right) that were used in South Africa in apartheid South Africa. One can imagine the fear these instilled in black people back then and also what their presence implied about black people; that black people were the enemy of the state and should be dealt with militantly. 'Geen genade' type vibes. This is nothing new as black people were referred to as 'terroriste'. Interestingly for me, a few years ago South African malls were being hit by criminals and the response was for one or two of these to be placed in Malls. So as I saw these, I wondered what other South Africans who saw them thought. I can grasp how this vehicle would not mean anything to white South Africans but how could it not send chills down the back of black South Africans who survived apartheid? I mean, how could those vehicles not illicit the same feelings that brought down the Rhodes statue? Why would a black government even use these as a scare tactic for a mall syndicate, Why not a bunch of GTI's with blinding blue lights which would be the most appropriate for the crime? I mean, really.
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