16 June 1976

In his book, Scattered: A Personal Story of the 1976 Generation, Khulu Mbatha weaves the stories of friends, comrades and neighbours into his personal ...

“There were times in Magadu when there was no meat, when there was no rice. “‘We must look at June 16 in context and try to link it to the efforts of today,” he says. The Greeks are more relaxed and willing to accommodate human failings.” For instance, he describes a time when Shell House ran out of funds to pay the staff. The leadership left first and the rank and file members were expected to return individually through amnesty, rather than as a group or organisation. Years later, he dedicated himself to research to trace and document the arcs of the lives of people he had known. “This strengthened us and gave us hope,” Mbatha says, adding that for some, though, this hope was not enough. The government is in charge of education.” Those who were with the PAC would tell you the ANC is working with whites and Russia is directing the struggle and those with the ANC would say, don’t waste your time with those PAC people, they don’t know what they are fighting for.” “‘It was difficult to dig out information about what happened in the camps, for example. The youth rose up and challenged the system that they had lived under since birth. Before ’76 I had never heard people having discussions about Mandela or Sisulu. When we were in deep confrontation with the system in 1976, some parents took the risk of saying that there were people who tried to change things years ago and some went to Robben Island and some went into exile.”