Marianne Merten
‘We dedicate our lives to peace. I’m not prepared to go back to the bush for any reason,” says Yazir Henri, who heads a self-help initiative of former liberation fighters in Cape Town.
The Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory was established last month to provide support for former combatants and their families and to record the unwritten histories of anti-apartheid fighters and black communities in the Western Cape.
“This [centre] is a place where we have reclaimed our voices and our self-respect. We are capable now of making a difference. It’s not about statistics. It’s about a person, a name,” Henri says.
The centre grew out of a four-year-old initiative by a group of former Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) cadres who formed Western Cape Action Tours, which takes tourists to historic sites on the Cape Flats. The centre, like the tours, is self-financed, and topped up with fundraising for specific projects.
The tours are still a part of the centre’s work. But so is trying to break down barriers between communities and fighting racism that, according to the group, still deeply divide the Cape.
“If I can see more South Africans, Capetonians [on the tours] then maybe racism will disappear,” said Nkululeko Booysen, director of tours and support groups. A former politi-cal detainee, he still remembers his worry that he may have done something wrong after a white student from Gauteng cried after one tour.
But it turned out she was overwhelmed by the warm reception in the townships after her mother had warned her against the day trip.
The centre also holds poetry meetings, seminars and educational workshops for university students. Its members have helped other activists with medical and legal difficulties. Plans are under way to host talks at schools and also in the pipeline is a competition for schools on the meaning of peace, with exchange trips to Germany for the winners.
It has been a slow but steady process. Many of the original ideas, like commemorative plaques for fallen comrades, have not yet materialised because of financial constraints. But the founder members, who had survived on a transport allowance and one shared meal a day, are now taking home a token salary.
The situation of this group of former MK fighters is in stark contrast to that of the hundreds living in poverty or those who have joined the ranks of the government and business elites.
A key aspect has been a determination to do it for themselves rather than seeking assistance. Disillusionment over the problem-ridden demobilisation money for non-statutory forces, veterans’ special pensions or the incomplete state of the military personnel register is no longer important.
Many people like Henri fell through the social security net because of age disqualifications or missing records, even though he became involved in the anti-apartheid struggle at the age of 15.
“If I spend too much time concerned about the special pension … I’m so angry I can’t do anything anyway. That’s why we started this. Let’s take responsibility for our lives,” Henri said. “We have been able to find meaning in our lives [at the centre].”
All of the centre’s members were previously unemployed and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. But the mutual support was worth more than the weekly counselling session some received for free.
“There was a lot of pain inside me. It was hard for me to talk about the comrades who fell. At least now I can tell others about them,” says Booysen. “It was very hard to speak about that pain, especially when I see the people who did this to me.”
Mxolisi Mbilatshwa (36) is a former MK soldier who returned from exile in 1992 to be integrated into the new South African National Defence Force. He left in 1996 because “it was not the right place” for him.
“I do not have a formal degree to fit into other jobs, but here at the centre I have a salary,” he says, adding that as a director at the centre he wants to help other comrades and continue to fight racism.
Says Booysen: “The little that I know about history must be written down. When we forget about the past what do we do tomorrow when the past is being repeated?”