BOIKIE TLHAPI - Echoes of History Betrayed
Boikie Ramatua Tlhapi was an anti-apartheid activist affiliated with the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), born in Ikageng, township outside Potchefstroom. His short and eventful life ended in Office Number 12, at the Stilfontein Police Station. The circumstances of his death as told by witnesses, Mr. George Mbathu and Mr. George Mogoejane, spell of a harrowing tale of torture and brutal force that saw his heart pierced by his broken ribs.
“Majestic”, as he was fondly known by his comrades, was arrested at roadblock outside of Orkney, and taken to the Stilfontein Police Station, together with a group of activists who were on their way to a night vigil in Jouberton, for another activist who was shot by the Special Branch Police.
Stilfontein, established in 1949 is a residential centre for three large gold mines and it is home to the infamous “mini Vlakplaas”, as the Stilfontein Police Station was known, established as a symbol of oppression of dissent by young activists against apartheid and white supremacy.
There is a phenomenon called “inimba yomzali” which translates to “the inner pain of parent”, but in western terms it is often termed “maternal or patronal instinct”. This intrinsic connection between a parent and an offspring in undeniably strong during birth and throughout the live of both, but it tends to be more severe when the child, the gift is taken away unexplainably and under duress.
It is as though the deceased child transmit their unrest in the land of the dead to the living parens, who are often assailed by physical and emotional distress, that often causes illness in those who happen to be in their twilight years.
This is the situation with Mme Thabitha Tlhapi, who has been ill for years following the events at Stilfontein mineshaft number 11, which is alleged to be the final resting place of his son.
Guided by conversations with many who were close to Boikie, this ongoing research behind his disappearance and subsequent death continues to open wounds for many who are intimately connected with the events, including family relatives still living without closure.
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On the day that Boikie Tlhapi was arrested by the Special Branch, he was on his way to Jouberton for a night vigil of another activist named Vincent MPUMLWANA, who was shot dead by members of the SAP..
On Friday the 28th of March in 1986, Nicholas Ramatua ‘Boiki’ Tlhapi was arrested near Stilfontein along with others on their way to a night vigil in nearby Jouberton, where another activist had been murdered by the police. Detained under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act, he was held at Stilfontein Police Station, where he was tortured and assaulted.
Boikie Tlhapi died on the 28th of March 1986 in Office Number 11 at the Stilfontein Police Station and Mr. Mbathu’s office was adjacent to the room that sealed an innocent man’s fate. Boikie suffered a punch from Sergeant April (Part of The infamous RIOT Unit of the western Transvaal SAP) which he blocked with his elbow, which in turn broke his rib and lodged it into his heart. Boikie disappeared after his arrest, and despite the family’s efforts, neither he nor his remains have been found.
In 1994, an inquest court returned a finding that it could not conclude that Boiki was deceased.
On 29 September 1996, Boiki’s father, Barileng James Tlhapi, testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The TRC found that Tlhapi was assaulted and tortured by Warrant Officer Viljoen, Sergeant Makiti, and Constables Tseladimitlwa, Tshwaedi, Majaja, and Mano of the Jouberton Security Branch, holding them and senior police officials responsible for his disappearance.
The much more recently, Tony and James Shaft in Stilfontein are the final places where the badly injured and tortured of Boikie Tlhapi wis alleged to have been discarded by white policemen responsible for the apartheid systems machinations to subvert revolutionary fervour of black people during the State Of Emergency of 1985 and later 1986.
This story traces the events preceding Boikie’s disappearance, covering his life as recalled by family and friends; it investigates the identities of the perpetrator of the brutal n=murder, and follows the quest of one former-apartheid police officer Mr. Geaorge Mbathu, as he grapples with revealing the action of his former colleagues.
On the 7th of March 1986, days before Boikie’s disappearance, the infamous State of Emergency imposed on 21 July 1985 was lifted. Yet one is left wondering if this move was not a mere ruse to lure activists out hiding, especially when as many as 1 416 people had died since September 1984 to March 1986.
Incidentally, the month of March 1986 had the highest monthly figure of 171 deaths, and it was during this month that Boikie met his fate, because he was stopped at a roadblock manned by Special Branch police members who actually admitted to have been looking for him according to Mr. Mbathu.
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Many of the black officer inherited from the apartheid era after Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990, were drawn from eleven police forces in South Africa, with each constituted under its own piece of legislation, operating within its own jurisdiction.
These homeland police forces had been created during the 1970s and 1980s, with the core members being drafted from the SAP. These members were either black members of the SAP, who were identified on the basis of their ethnicity, skill, and perceived loyalty to the apartheid model; or more senior white officers who were "seconded" to the homelands on the basis of lucrative fixed-term contracts.
Street-level policing was conducted in a heavy- handed style, with bias against black citizens and little respect for rights or due process. Criminal investigations were largely reliant on confessions extracted under duress, and harsh security legislation provided or tolerated various forms of coercion and torture.
This was the climate under which Mr George Mbathu worked since 1976 until his dismissal due to his inability to turn a blind eye to brutal policing techniques used against young black detainees. And being one who was infamously outspoken to his white superior, he was inevitably a threat that had to be disposed off, as killing him would have raised suspicion during a time political transition.
Another reality is that Western Transvaal and Buphutatswana, apart from the financial benefits of being deployed to the homelands, the founder members of the homeland forces found themselves the beneficiaries of rapid promotions, and were able to operate with unusual autonomy from the police headquarters in Pretoria - which often allowed the creation of the networks of patronage and corruption which came to characterise the homeland forces.
The infamous police force known as the SAP was formed in 1913, the same year that the Native Land Act was introduced and enforced, and strangely, Mr. George Mbathu joined the SAPS in 1976, when many black youths were taking arms against the apartheid system.
This police station, over decades seems to have become a place where white mine owners can be exonerated by black brute police force while the bones of activists disposed by their apartheid police remain forgotten in the rubble of newly rotting flesh of those deemed illegal for mining the land of their ancestors.
The devastating history of the Stilfontein Police station as a centre for torture of anti-apartheid activists is well known in the Matlosana district of South Africa. Many bodies of activists who were abducted, tortures and murdered in the infamous cells of that police station were dumped into open mineshaft around the towns of Orkney and Stilfontein.
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Built around colonial ruins are the townships of Khuma, Kanana and Jouberton, and Alabama, spaces fragmented by racial demarcations and tribal lines, mere spaces for recycled and exploited labour, residences of disenfranchised generations who took to the streets to demand equality.
Death and torture are synonymous in these regions and silence is not an absence, it bears witness to the voids left by the disappeared and perished activists, the politics of resistance and resilience; where silence becomes an echo of loss haunting the present.
And through voices of elders and memory-keepers in acts of active listening, we encounter a profound dialogue with memory, resistance and activism, where collective memory emerges as both an act of mourning losses and a gesture of hope.
Legacies of colonial violence characterise the now dying small town of Stilfontein; an alienated landscape that is vehicle of various economic and political struggles. Social services have ground to a halt because of the retraction of mining activities, and rampant crime soaks the streets with good due to traumas of unemployment and poverty.
And approaching the evident social decay under the New Democratic dispensation, one wonders if the sacrifice of struggle stalwarts and activists have borne fruit?
This investigation provides a framework for an ongoing conversation around advocacy and accountability and reparation for the ills of the past, provoking the artist in me to investigate criminal records and other data to deliberately track realities of destruction of the human spirit.
These lingering traces of past state sanctioned crimes have yet to find redress within the present context of an epoch of unveiling truths about the unfinished work of the Truth And Reconciliation Commission. Yet, the persistence of colonial logic when analysing displacement of people of colour from their ancestral lands fails to conceive the magnitude of the trauma caused by exploitation and imperialist policies of racial segregation and subordination of people of colour.
After 40 years of his disappearance, Boikie’s legacy is fading into obscurity at the brink of political isolation, and the notion of intergenerational justice raises the questions about reparations for crimes that transcend generations and questions about methods of finding closure for the bereaved families left without bodies to bury.
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Inextricably linked to vast networks of economic and political power, the current endemic corruption within the Matlosana Police Force, forces bureaucratic obstacles on anyone requesting access to information pertaining to previous personnel, their various case files and dockets, especially those related to activists arrested during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
These obstacles, compounded by aggressive attitudes from the current police force, are often inherited from the apartheid era networks, and as colonial crimes pile up, an interconnected of these crimes continues to shape our devastating present and future.
And when delving into the historical roots of state sanctioned assassinations, one also discovers the recruitment of taxi owners into the Frey of political sabotage of activists and their activities. These owners, would snitch and sell many activists out to Special Branch police, and these activists would never be seen alive again.
It was during a period of drastic social and political upheavals, many young people undertook to make the country “ungovernable”, as was a clarion call by the leaders of the ANC in exile. All township protests and acts of civl disobedience might be interpreted as a response to their attendant insecurity and ideological disorientations that came with the state of emergency of 1986.
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With the recent announcement of an inquest into the death of a number of activists, these public hearings will certainly unveil and prosecute intergenerational crimes, addressing crimes of the past and reflecting on the intergenerational impact of those crimes on communities.
There might be some proverbial barometers of political relevance that determines which activist receives acknowledgment and acclaim in this newly emancipated nation, but personages such as Boikie Tlhapi, seem to be relegated into the voids of history, similar to the mine-shafts into which his body was disposed.
A distinguished gentleman, and indispensable dressmakers for a community mending its seams torn by an oppressive political climate, Boikie was also a lover and father, cherished by many souls who bear the loss of his untimely death. But as the South African Geographical Names Council consults with communities regarding their meticulously crafted Draft Amendment Bill, Boikie’s name will fall short of remembrance and commemoration.
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Human history has been shaped by the process of asking questions.and historical imagery, a vision of cultural history that connected the past and present are essential elements for recollection of erased and censored memories.
The central node of a broader investigation into the disappearance of Boikie “Majestic” Tlhapi is predicated therefore on finding a conciliatory closure for family members, but also for the community that shaped his political awareness.
As a narrative vessel, Tlhapi’s life is a reminder that in order for transparency to take the fore society need effectively respond to complex and evolving questions of his death. As a filmmaker it has been an awakening journey of an inclusive discourse that I am to foster regarding the untruths and erasures of people in the not so distant past of white supremacist oppression of black people in South Africa.
And through this documentary, a work that deftly combines documentary, archival research, and performative strategies, viewers are entreated to face the dire face of history, to stare into the maw of mineshaft concealing restless souls of lost activists and struggle heroes.
This work brings together diverse voices, materials and histories to create something greater than the sum of its parts, its title derives from an exhibition by Sammy Baloyi titled Echos Of History, Shadows Of Progress. The artist’s work which inspires my work explores the complex interplay of cultural identity, colonial history, and industrial exploitation within his homeland, the Democratic Republic of Congo. His work is an ongoing research of the cultural, architectural and industrial heritage of the contested and mineral-rich region of Katanga, as well as a critical examination of the impact of Belgian colonisation.
deeply rooted in memory and history, offering a powerful and experimental approach that encourages reflection on significant yet under-explored social histories, this documentary film speaks historical cliches that contuse to shape contemporary perspectives of the past, deforming and reforming them for subaltern purposes of censor and erasure.
