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It was during the Soweto unrests of the 1980s that I ended up in the small Mpumalanga town of Piet Retief. I was a child, not even in my teens, when I landed in Thandukukhanya township. It was a desolate place that had been cast out of the main economic activity of what was then Eastern Transvaal. A location of subservient people, I observed. Urban areas were up in flames with anti-apartheid protests as part of the Struggle call to “make South Africa ungovernable”. Inasmuch as I did not understand the politics of the era, I knew of family members who were sentenced to Robben Island with Nelson Mandela. Some of my cousins would escape Soweto to join us in Piet Retief as a means of running away from the notorious Special Branch that was hunting activists.

Piet retiefSouth africaKwazulu natalFree stateRobben islandWestern capeEastern capeSouth africanEastern transvaalDingane ka senzangakhonaVoortrekker piet retiefThamsanqad malingaMakhosi nyokaNkosinathi thenjekwayoSifiso nxumaloEmmanuel mavuso