My life of Joe

This is My Perspective:

There is little doubt in my mind today that Joe had been the kernel force that gathered the momentum of the legend that Bonteheuwel has become in ANC political folklore. Bonteheuwel`s rich history of activism found its Shangri-La in the shadows of Joe`s presence.

The 1980`s were turbulent times. The energy that surged through black civil society had reached breakout point and young people all across the country were swept up in the urgency and promise of the moment.

I entered the feared streets of Bonteheuwel as a 15 year old fresh from leading a student rebellion at a Mitchells Plain School. Our efforts led to the election of an SRC and our school joining others in defying the Apartheid regime. 

Through a twist of fate my family got the opportunity to move from Tafelsig to Bonteheuwel just as the police were closing in on me.

So there I was, a stranger in strange world. But it wasn’t long before the student leadership of Bonteheuwel High had roped me into the SRC and I set off on a journey that would forever make Bonteheuwel my home.

In the cauldron of a low level civil uprising, and with brutal and heavy repression the order of the day, the bonds that form between people are steeled in a very special way. And so it was with the activists in Bonteheuwel. I was drawn into a family in which I felt loved and appreciated. That time  still shapes me in countless ways.

The core of the Bonteheuwel leadership was made up of some of the most dynamic individuals South Africa has produced.  But this is not a story about them. Joe loomed large within the circle that had formed the command of the Bonteheuwel uprising. Always a charismatic character, he attracted others in an effortless display of genuine friendship and real concern. Combined with his access to banned material and other “resources” reaped from his German expedition, Joe established himself as the go-to man.

It was not difficult to forge a friendship with Joe and I saw many shared qualities between us that further strengthened the bond I felt with him. Both of us for example were “ruffians”. 

As a young teenager, Joe had run with the Clinic Kids. A group of boy`s, like so many across the Cape Flats, who through their joint and common location, form a friendship that just works in every sense. As the chemistry works within the group, the acts of bravado and borderline criminality increases. But this group did not go on to bigger things. Instead people like Joe and Suleiman became activists. 

They both carried their Clinic Kids days with them right to the end.

Most of the group was to become very close and personal friends of mine. Friendship’s that still last today and which I hold dear. My friendship with Joe had its own special flavour.

Like I said, Joe and I were ruffians. We could mix it when we had to, and we often did. It was this bravado that I shared with Joe that eventually led to a distancing and cooling of our friendship and the loss of one other friendship. I regret it to this day.

Joe was more than a buddy that shared certain characteristics with me. In the early years he was my mentor. We became colleagues, working side by side in the trenches. He was my comrade all along.

But more than all of these, He was my hero.  The Joe I saw was the one that fell in love with his wife Kathy and would lay down an example that would shape the way I approached my own marriage and how I raised my kids and which has truly had the most profound effect on me as a human being.

Kathy, in her own inimitable way had grown to be the mother of the group. The one we could always rely on. She would keep us on the straight and narrow. Her wisdom, exceeding her years.  I loved Kathy for how she nurtured and cared for us, but more I love her because in a time fraught with uncertainty and fear, she stood up for me. She brought me into the Bonteheuwel family. In that at least Kathy, I have been true to you.

Joe and Kathy`s marriage and their open home provided a perspective that I had never before come across. Joe worked around the house; he took care of Thandi and engaged in politics. Joe chose to stay home as a caregiver and nurturer, sacrificing his own career ambitions.  And I watched this unfold. It was joe`s example that truly set me free from the standard. A feminist if not by proclamation, then by action. 

The love I witnessed in their home and the love and friendship that permeated the Bonteheuwel political space in the 80`s are closely connected from my perspective.

Whatever it was that shaped the dynamic of a truly seminal period in our lives, Joe`s role will always feature.

There are many things we regret when a loved one passes on and my regrets are many.  But I will never regret loving Joe.

Go well my friend.

From your friend Moet the Poet.