Iapproach this discussion on the life and times of Bra Mike Sello Matsobane as a proverbial instance made practical. There is a saying that goes: No good deed goes unpunished, all evil done gets rewarded.
This is invariably said in many ways in the indigenous languages to convey a similar sense loaded with aphorism, moral law and an analysis of objective conditions.
In the African setting, proverb as argument compresses a belief system, history and moral into one pithy message. Academics often insist that logic and rationale should carry the argument and thus dismiss what ancient wisdom and pan-African philosophy convey. Indigenous Knowledge Systems are disregarded at Western-centred institutions of higher learning and should you take the route I’m taking in this piece, you would certainly be failed.
Theoretically, in the system the good act is “punished” not for being good but for disturbing the equilibrium that evil profits from. This is called the second-order effect. Corruption and evil seem to be efficient because they exhibit stolen goods to all and sundry, while those doing what is morally upright are not given recognition and they are not rewarded in any way.
Every good deed done, almost every well-meaning intention to uplift society and every selfless commitment to bring about change in the lives of people, breaks the unspoken rules subliminally dominating communities.
It is the evil ones who steal from the mouths of hungry babies who are praised and recognised in social media profiles and gossip columns. Evil is rewarded because evil is optimised for the short game.
In political terms, the struggle of morale frowns on conspicuous consumption. It is naive and disgusting to see cadres claiming to serve the people while creating a gulf of opulence between them and communities. They must bridge the gap by focusing on improving the quality of life of the masses.
On the face of it, the tsotsi stands out as the most successful character in our communities because they are the ones who flash stolen goods and are seen living large and gallivanting flamboyant society. The crooks, whether clad in prosperity gospel apparel or pretending to influence society as public figures, are and will always be forces of darkness doing bad in their corners.
On the contrary, the hard-working person plays the longer game — they are honest, law abiding, trustworthy, have a hard-earned reputation and have inner peace — that pays in 50 years, not 50 days.
We must grasp the underlying meaning in the saying. It looks like the tsotsi wins and the honest hard-worker is doomed to ignominy. In despair, we say life is not fair.
The ledger of African philosophy answers this misleading state-ment by saying: Letlhaku le lentsha le beiwa ka le legologolo (A new branch is placed next to an old one). We must make an effort to shine the light on our patriotic heroes, let their stories be known. Allow the intergenerational dialogue not to suffer fools.
We in Africa believe in the cycle of life, the cosmos, the relationship with nature and the environment, the concept of the after-life, reincarnation instead of resurrection, the past and the future all embedded in our daily life in the present.
Our toolkit to deal with everlasting life has many options and variables to sort out reward for doing good by our forebears and by our people. The reward for our patriotic heroes is not immediate. It is in most cases intergenerational.
The opening remarks sum up what Matsobane stands for. He is not seeking attention. He is not into sensation to be seen and showered with praises. He can be said to be shy and reticent. Even the thought of a public lecture in his name, focused on his brave and selfless contribution for the good of his community in the West Rand puts him ill at ease.
Good men and women among us deserve to be honoured and their legacy preserved and widened in our own neighbourhoods.
Jawaharlal Nehru was imprisoned and persecuted more than nine times during the struggle for freedom in British-occupied India. He valued national liberation higher than the comfort and privilege his wealthy family had. He was forcefully separated from his loved ones, tortured and psychologically molested, his name blemished by false propaganda, his friends and family distancing themselves from him — he suffered for more than 35 years until the time when he was inaugurated as first prime minister of India in 1947. In context, Matsobane was imprisoned twice on Robben Island maximum prison. The first time was in 1963 until 1967. The second was from 1976 until 1987. His illustrious struggle credentials are matched by a few. He is a companion of Africanist leaders in the National Liberation Struggle as a doer and practitioner of ideas in action.
In brief, the secret Bethal Trial was about the PAC Underground between 1963 and 16 June 1976. The Pretoria regime was incensed that the student uprising started on 16 June — the same date in 1967 when the Munsieville Four plus One were executed at the gallows for activities associated with the Poqo Insurrection that the racist authorities had believed to have suppressed and defeated with brute force.
Four detainees were killed in detention with regard to their participation in the activities of the PAC Underground. Matsobane was a livewire in the operations of the PAC Underground in the then- Witwatersrand on the reef, setting up front organisations, mobilising and recruiting young people. He reported to Zeph Mothopeng who was described as a lion by Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe.
They worked in a geopolitical climate in Southern Africa when white domination was defended with brute force in a police state. It was said that every other person was linked in one way or another to the informer network of the Special Branch division of the SA Police. The Bureau of State Security had intelligence agents all over the land.
Only true revolutionaries were brave enough to work behind enemy lines. The PAC Underground worked in the belly of the beast, led by Sobukwe and Mothopeng. The PAC Mission in Exile was working in the rear base, building a conducive climate for a widespread people’s war against colonialism and imperialism.
The enemy forces created censorship to suppress information in books, magazines and other non-conformist platforms.
The apartheid authorities engendered a spiral of fear and silence, isolating those who opposed it by issuing house arrests and banning, restricting leaders to the confines of magisterial districts. Dissenting writers and public intellectuals were given exit permits to leave the country for good. There was no freedom of association, movement or expression — all other basic liberties were non-existent.
Matsobane’s movements were placed under heavy surveillance after his first instalment in prison. He created a defence mechanism linked to his kind and amiable character of treating all with respect and an infectious smile.
He was seen as a kind person while doing damage to the enemy. The authorities gradually lifted heavy restrictions on him. We can certainly say they regretted it when they later found out that he was continuing with the PAC Underground work.
His loved ones are heroes too for having to endure surveillance and harassment by the system of oppression. Many activists would have broken if they did not have the love and support of their families.
Mothopeng and Matsobane represent the calibre of leadership that committed itself body and soul to serve the African people. They did not run across the borders to pre-serve themselves. It is as near to supreme sacrifice as it can be.
Matsobane must be credited for inspiring a by-then-unknown Desmond Tutu to participate in the development of the protest movement beginning to be on the boil in the townships. As bishop of the Anglican diocese in Johannesburg, Tutu wrote a letter to the prime minister of racist South Africa, John Vorster, cataloguing touch points in these communities. Bishop Tutu was concerned as a man of the cloth, predicting the mass protests that were looming.
Equally, Frank Chikane, who was a witness at the secret Bethal Trial, a resident of Kagiso and teacher in high school was drawn to black theology and took up the priesthood where he later led a groundswell of deep commitment to the Liberation Theology.
The PAC and its non-sectarian practice are often ignored or undermined by pundits in the media platforms.
In the Bethal Trial, the Rand Daily Mail newspaper carried an article in 1979 in which state witnesses were quoted as having heard Matsobane use the truism that “the tree of liberty will be watered with the blood of the martyrs”.
At this stage of the trial in 1979, the convicted guerrilla, Solomon Mahlangu, was facing execution at the gallows. Mahlangu used this saying, arguably inspired by Matsobane, on 6 April 1979 before he was hanged. This brings us back to the use of proverbs as argument in African philosophy. The issue of nuggets of wisdom found in punchlines that are repeatable and easy to remember is a sine qua non with the African languages. When we deny ourselves the use of mother tongue in education, we are lost in the translation of colonial teachings and cannot assert ourselves and our heritage in the development of African civilisations.
We must return to the source. We must use our way of life, as taught by our African forebears, in folk music, art and languages to enhance our understanding of the world we live. We must put into practice the culture of liberation. Folklore is not targeted at the young as part of children’s literature. It is the Western compartment of literature for sales that has done so. All age groups are enjoined to learn from the animal kingdom, in the oral tradition, where the weak overcome the strong and creative solutions for survival can be made in dire circumstances.
Folk culture is used by Africanists as memory against erasure. The colonialists said African people have no history and like wild animals have no land to claim as their own. The African people used song, praise poetry, oral traditions and clan history in folk tales as a deed of title. A title deed is your understanding of your identity and heritage.
We were here before the 1913 Land Act, said Sol Plaatje on behalf of the African people. Years later, as a lecturer in linguistics at Wits University, Sobukwe taught his students to decipher the message of traditional artists like MEK Mqhayi, Mokopu Mofolo, and others, associating poetic language with the identity of the people with the land, defiantly and unafraid.
This is how the unsung hero — Michael Sello Matsobane — will be free from erasure and his memory will be fused with the intergenerational dialogue he himself held with the youth of 1976.
The uncomfortable conversation must continue until final victory. This is a lightly edited version of the The Sello Mike Matsobane Annual Lecture that Jaki Seroke presented at the book launch of Mike Matsobane’s updated biography in Kagiso on 3 October 2026.