The extraordinary life of Stompie Mokhetsi
SOUTH AFRICA
SUSPECTED of complicity in the tragic affair of the Soweto killings, Winnie Mandela has been disgraced even in the eyes of ANC sympathizers. The United Democratic Front (UDF) and the trade-union federation COSATU have publicly dissociated themselves from Winnie Mandela. At the roots of the affair was her personal bodyguard, "Mandela's football team", which has now been dissolved. A young 14-year-old militant, Stompie Mokhetsi, was assassinated. Mokhetsi was well-known as an outstanding "leader" of Soweto's army of hundreds of young boys, some of whom are under ten years old.
Stompie was one of the township youth who played a particularly distinguished role in the troubles of
1985-87. His murder, in a conflict with members of "Mandela's football team", Illustrates the present crisis inflicting the mass movement in some parts of South
Africa since the period of big mobilizations. Gangs of youth have multiplied in some districts in the grey area between political agitation and delinquency, making the settling of scores only more ambiguous. So why Winnie Mandela's entourage and why now? The main reason can be found in the social decomposition in some sectors of the townships and the negative political consequences that this
N OCTOBER 1987, at the age of 13 and the height of less than four feet,
Stompie Mokhetsi didn't think he would live much longer. "They can come and get me at any time," he remarked impassively to Peter Godwin, a British journalist who had tracked him down in Tumahole township. "I'm likely to die in the struggle," he said. "But the struggle will go on."
Stompie's predictions were proved correct in a forensic laboratory in Pretoria this week: a single identifiable fingerprint taken from his badly decomposed body put an end to weeks of speculation about his whereabouts.
Stompie's short life was extraordinary. At the time of the interview in Tumahole, the miniscule activist was arguably the best-known figure in the township. He was International Viewpoint #159 • March 20, 1989 implies for the people's movement. Apartheid therefore remains the backdrop to this crisis. But other elements are superimposed.
First of all, the ANC has generally encouraged the media image created around the wife of its imprisoned leader, Nelson Mandela. This seems to have helped boost Winnie's dangerous autonomy. On the other hand, in the heat of the mass struggles from 1985 to 1987, some militants claiming to belong to the ANC were not loath to get involved in physical intimidation -if not lethal confrontations - with other political currents. It is very difficult later to put a stop to such methods, above all when confusion reigns and the future of the struggle looks uncertain.
So It is not implausible that the assassination of Doctor Abu-Baker Asvat, a national leader of the Azanian Peoples Organization (AZAPO), that took place the same week was also carried out by Stompie Mokhetsi's murderers. Thus gang activity and political sectarianism intersect, all things that do a great deal of harm to the Black South African movement.
We are publishing below an article from the February 17 issue of the South African Weekly Mail. Stomple Mokhetsi's life illustrates extremely vividly the scope of the mobilization of young people from 1984-86 and its contradictions when it is distanced from political perspectives. the "little general" to an "Under-14" army of some 1,500 ghetto children. He had just resumed his "command" after spending a year on remand in prison and being acquitted on public violence charges.
The Under-14s, he explained, were formed in 1985 — when he was ten — because "the other groups were all talk and no action. We formed an army to protect the people from harassment." His youngest foot-soldier was eight. "We're braver than the adults," he said.
The child army fought physical battles with the municipal police Beans" — and right-wing vigilantes called the "A-Team"
When the Tumahole town hall was burnt down in 1987 it was rumoured to have been torched by the Under-14s in protest against the town councillors' refusal to allow the
Stompie Mokhetsi (DR) hall to be used by the local civic association.
Many of his comrades affectionately called him Tompana, a Zulu/Xhosa diminutive for the Afrikaans diminutive, Stompie. He'd inherited the nickname "Stompie" because of the apparent contradiction between his slight physique and overpowering presence. A stompie, in this sense, is a hard, unyielding thing. "What is the direction, comrades?"
Friends - most of whom doubled as admirers, if not disciples — tell of him forever discussing politics. "What is the direction, comrade?" was said to be his catch-phrase.
His personality touched many people beyond his immediate comrades. Professor Mervin Shear, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Witwatersrand, recalls being so struck by Stompie that he invited him to lunch.
The pocket-sized activist addressed a mass meeting at Wits in 1987: he entered the hall and mounted the stage carrying a businesslike black briefcase. Some felt he was emulating the Rev. Allan Boesak, whom he admired. Shear said after the meeting he saw Stompie "enthralling a large group of students who gathered round to hear his oratory. Students stood around with their mouths wide open" as the boy recited chunks of the Freedom Charter.
It was "one of those sensitive days" on campus, said Shear, and he was concerned that some people who were not "welldisposed towards Stompie" would take advantage of his presence. The vicechancellor therefore invited Stompie to
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March 20, 1989 • #159 International Viewpoint lunch, along with Tiego Moseneke, expresident of the Azanian Student's Organization, who translated between them when communication faltered.
Shear told the Weekly Mail he was amazed by the young character who related his experiences in detention. Shear was "very saddened" to see Stompie's picture in newspapers once he had disappeared.
He had been living in the Orlando Methodist Church sanctuary, set up for children whose home environments were devastated by the prolonged State of Emergency and widespread repression and violence in the mother, on December 1 last year. She told the Weekly Mail that he had given her the only money he had at the time, a R5 note and some cents. He had also told his moth-
Stompie was a close friend of another child who died in the political turmoil of the 1980s — Sicelo Dhlomo. According to Dhlomo's mother, the boys had a special salute they used to greet each other. They Slapped each other's palms, wrists and fists whenever they met. "They would sit in the kitchen and discuss political issues all day," she said. She has a wistful phrase for
SOUTH AFRICA • CANADA the tragedy that, like her own son, befell Stompie. "He had a stompie of a life," she said.
The British reporter who spent time with Stompie in 1987 said there was "more to his personality than politics". He recalls his last memory of Stompie: "Sitting reading the newspapers at the table of township cafe, his feet not long enough to reach the floor, the child in him suddenly reemerged. Asked what he wanted more than anything right now, his answer was "..a BMX bike, some new clothes that fit and something to eat." * townships.
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