The International Centre of Nonviolence (ICON) held a panel discussion titled “The Apartheid struggle: fighting and resisting…

The International Centre of Nonviolence (ICON) held a panel discussion titled “The Apartheid struggle: fighting and resisting”. Taking part in the discussion was senior lecturer in Graphic design at DUT, Rick Andrew, former SANDF Sergeant, Zamindlela Mbele and part-time lecture at DUT’s homeopathy department, Richard Steele. The trio spoke about their choices and experiences as individuals faced with challenges of Apartheid and the struggle against it.

Andrew read chapters from his book Buried in the sky, released in 2001 by Penguin. In the book he goes into details of how when he was a musician, in 1976 he was sent for his third camp on the South West border with Angola, at that time SADF were fighting guerrillas and Cuban solders.

Pietermaritzburg born Zamindlela Mbele joined COSAS and the UDF in primary school at KwaMashu. At the age of 14 he went into exile after his school principal was killed and his school closed in 1989. In Uganda and Tanzania he underwent military training and became a Platoon Commander and then Instructor. Upon finally returning to South Africa, he joined the infantry as part of the integration process into the SANDF and was present at the inauguration of President Nelson Mandela. Says Mbele “at the time we felt as if there was no other way to fight the Apartheid regime, but now I agree that violence is not the right way of solving things.”

Another man who also doesn’t believe in violence as a way of solving problems is Richard Steele. He refused to co-operate with military service on the grounds of pacifism and opposition to apartheid. In February 1980 he appeared before the military court and was sentenced to a year in military prison. Steele said that he does not believe in violence, after his release from prison, he was active member of the End Conscription Campaign until conscription was abolished in 1993.

-By Andile Dube