When I received the sad news that Cde Bushy is no more, I simply froze. My mind refused to process the news. I felt a very strong urge not to believe what I have heard. But I also knew that Cde Bushy was not in the best health condition. He lived with a coronary problem for some time. He had travelled to Thailand for more check-up earlier. After speaking to my wife and a few Cdes, including Cde Shadrack Ganda, a mutual friend and fellow combatant who is unfortunately not here because he is currently in Australia. I began to absorb the reality of the situation and began to regain my composure. Despite the pain and as we collectively grief, we must celebrate his life and times. He sacrificed a lot so that we could enjoy this freedom. I have known Cde Bushy since we were born. But chronicling his expansive contribution to our struggle for freedom is not an easy task. As we celebrate this great leader of our country, we must strongly resist the temptation to construct and reconstruct the history he helped to shape to fit certain narratives, biases and distortions. We must all truthfully construct accurate memories of our leader, commander and friend. He would ask for nothing less or more. I will humbly share the little I can.

Cde Bushy: The indefatigable organiser

Cde Bushy was an activist of a special type. A strategic thinker and visionary. Humble, brilliant, unassuming but assertive. Gifted with a rare talent of being extremely intelligent and wise. A solid Huhudian. He was a great political spotter of talent. He was resilient with a rare ability and solid intelligence to build a base from the ground up. No situation was complex to him. We met in the late 70’s in Vryburg and later when Jomo and I were at Batlhaping High School in Taung. Further political discussions ensued. When were now fully being drawn into the underground, specifically, into the Kgalagadi Underground Machinery (KUMA). Typical of him, he had been extremely and meticulous about who would be in the unit. He wanted the most trustworthy, reliable, committed and smart to be part of the unit from across the then Northern Cape and beyond. This was what a good commander, teacher and mentor would do. He was a good and a serious organiser and operative of Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK). 

He fully understood the realities on the ground, the task of the moment and the type of cadre appropriate for that moment. He knew that the dangerous task of reviving the congress movement under the repressive conditions of the time could be limiting. He was fully cognisant of the fact that a strong underground was the sine qua non for the political success of mass mobilisation and raising political consciousness. He knew the combination of the power between mass mobilisation and an effective underground. He understood that these were politically mutually reinforcing. He also knew that the duty to revive the underground, was integral to renewing and rebuilding congress traditions and consciousness at that crucial time,when apartheid was at its most vicious. His life reflects a chronicle of everything which needed to be executed with exceptional dedication and precision. Overall, he never engaged in conspiracies against anyone. He was forthright and a great unifying figure. But he was not a pushover.

He articulated the tasks ahead and advised of the need to connect with the ANC old guard across the Northern Cape. For that revival, some inspiration was needed from those who came before, because to him history mattered. In Kimberley he identified Ntate Mampe, Mamusa contact was made with the Matlaopanes, in Taung it was Kgosi Baisitse, in Kgomotso Rre Lobakeng, Ntate Sefora in Rustenburg, in whose honour he would later establish a bursary fund when he was Premier in 2022. .Somewhere   in Ramatlabama, Madibogo Mahikeng ,Pampierstad, Kuruman, Vryburg , Bloemfontein etc. This was to become the extended infrastructure for the underground Kgalagadi Unit revealing his natural ability and instinct to organise. That Unit became very instrumental in the politicization of many communities across the then Northern Cape. Most of us survived because the regime could not connect the dots, despite repeated detentions and torture under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act and States of Emergency. All because our commander was an exceptional leader and operative, who had instilled in the operatives, discipline and vigilance. All these occurred almost 50 years ago. As we celebrate 50 years since June 16,1976, we will reminisce about that period and the role of Cde Bushy in it and it raised his political consciousness and many others.

Cde Bushy, despite being a commander of the Kgalagadi Machinery, he made sure that the youth, communities, students and workers are organised. Him and I even came to Unibo to make contact then. Of course, some of the comrade who were about to leave the country would sleep there. The ANC declared 1983 “The Year of Unity in Action”. This year marked the era of heightening resistance. This was the period when the clarion call was made to make South Africa ungovernable and set up organs of peoples power. With structures proliferating across the province, Cde Bushy, playing a leading role, ensured that potential cadres for the ANC and young recruits for MK were identified. These structures were solid political pipelines to select and recruit for the Kgalagadi Unit commanded by “Kgalagadi” himself. One Cde, Tiro Kganelo in his tribute, referred to Cde Bushy as “a master underground operative” charged with the responsibility to intensify the struggle for liberation by coordinating the ANC underground work.

Cde Shadrack Ganda remembers him as “a prolific leader, gifted administrator and a respected teacher of ANC strategy and politics.” From 1976 to 1986 when he was arrested by the regime, 10 years, before he was convicted and sent to Robben, he had laid an irreversible foundation for an uninterruptible momentum to people’s power. He had carried out the clarion call of OR Tambo when he said in January 1983, “Make apartheid unworkable! Make the country ungovernable! That was the 70th anniversary of the ANC, proclaimed as the Year of Unity in Action and the year in which the UDF was to be born later in August 1983. The revival of the underground, by Cde Bushy, coincided with those developments. It was an exciting period to be an activist and a comrade! Being tortured or arrested or killed was far from the minds of that generation. But they were always ready! During those times, we saw that Cde Bushy was such an indefatigable organiser who was central to all political developments of the time across the country, ensuring that we are organisationally to take on the brutal apartheid regime.

Cde Bushy: An intellectual for whom the classroom never died.

Cde Bushy believed strongly in the value and endurance of education, always emphasising the need for continuous study and self-development of those close to him. Something which those who worked with him fully embraced. In early 1994, he suggested that we need to draft a document, motivating to set up a socialist think-tank at the North-West University which he called-Forum for Socialist Discourse. (FSD) We were to lobby Dr Setlhare at the Mahikeng campus. I presented a draft to the PEC of the SACP ,of which I was then part, but it never saw the light of day. I will not disclose what happened, but he was very disappointed about it and his response was… I never knew that there was such a thing as collective thinking, where a group of people could simultaneously conceive the same idea. We must not adulterate the meaning of democratic centralism. His sarcasm was not hidden there, though he dropped this as a joke!

He was an avid reader, not allergic to books. His thirst for continuous learning was unmistakeable.His understanding and application of pedagogic theories from the book-Pedagogy of the Oppressed sets him apart from his peers as a teacher. He did not disconnect education from the political environment. He understood the unity between theory and practice. He could contextualise. Influenced by Paulo Freire, he was of the conviction that “students must be moved towards a critical perception of the world “He operationalise what Freire advised when he said ‘I must intervene in teaching peasants that their hunger is socially constructed and work with them to identify those responsible for this social construction which is, in my view, a crime against humanity. Therefore, we need to intervene, not only pedagogically, but also ethically. Before any intervention however, an educator must have political clarity” Cde Bushy held the view that ‘curiosity about the object of knowledge and the willingness and openness to engage theoretical readings and discussions is fundamental “He drew from Freire himself. No wonder he was such an indefatigable organiser, a prolific administrator, mentor, teacher and a political strategist with superior political clarity. He was an unmatched visionary with a very brilliant mind fully dedicated to fight for a better tomorrow. It was as if Ho Chi Minh, whom he admired and was fond of referencing, was talking to him when he said, “Our resistance will be long and painful, but whatever the sacrifices, however long the struggle, we shall fight to the end” Cde  Bushy never left the battlefield before victory was won. He served beyond the call of duty.

His dedication to nurture young people was consistent even after freedom. He maintained that we needed double-barrel profiles. Struggle credentials plus academic qualifications. He preached that skills, competence and capabilities. I therefore worked with him to arrange for Cdes abroad for studies, especially in economics and development studies at Bradford and Liverpool Universities. I remember Keith Khoza, Letlhogonolo Mahlangu, the late Eric Matlawe, Tebogo Kebotlhale, Shellwood Nale, Khotso Khasu,Killer Modise, Matthew Sathekge, Khotso Moeketsi, Zodwa Mvuleni, China Dodovu and many others. In Kimberley he was the brains behind Radio Teemaneng and other community radio stations across the then Northern Cape.

 He initiated the setting up of a Research and Resource Centre in Kimberley. This process was ably led by one of his MK recruits and operatives, the late Tebogo Pelele amongst other. In his honour Cde Thato Magogodi, accurately captures his passion as a teacher and a purveyor of knowledge when he says(quote) “You were an inexhaustible reservoir of knowledge. A revolutionary teacher before you were Premier, the kind of man in whom political discourse found a home. You were the Commissar that sharpened our young minds, able to dissect a resolution with the precision of a surgeon and rebuild it with the patience of a father.” (Close quote) Cde Bushy had also worked as a research coordinator at the Macro Economic Research Group established by the ANC in 1990.He worked there with Bra Max Sisulu and Ben Fine. It was a progressive left leaning economic think tank. He worked there in 1991 before he joined the Provincial government as a Chief Director, Strategic Planning Unit, responsible for the RD. Arranging for some Cdes to study economics and development abroad, was inspired by his experience at MERG and his work as RDP Coordinator in the provincial government after 1994. 

Cde Bushy: The all-rounder.

In 2014, Cde Bushy organised family trips to Namibia. Both for leisure and engagement. Four families and their children travelled to Windhoek, some went via Rietfontein and others Ramatlabama. Cde Bushy had already arranged that we meet with the stalwart and Swapo veteran, the late Toivo ya Toivo, himself a Robben Islander. We also met some senior leaders of SWAPO. The idea was to learn from them how they are taking care of Toivo ya Toivo and other veterans. I am sure Cde Dove and others will attest to this. That excursion led to him and others engaging our late stalwart and ANC leader, Mam Ruth on the establishment of the Ruth Mompati Foundation, which he steered passionately until his last breath. He wanted it to do what we learned from SWAPO and Toivo ya Toivo on history and memory of our veterans. Those who are remaining with the Foundation must ensure that it does not collapse in honour of this great man. We can say much, but maybe we must compile the rest in a book on this great man.

To the Maape family, especially the children, you father, brother, uncle, grandfather, was a special human being who loved you deeply. To friends and Cdes, you know what he did. Let’s us write about his contribution and reflect him truthfully to preserve his rich legacy. To his party, the ANC and all its formation, let his legacy inspire our renewal and genuine unity. To the Huhudi community, Kuruman, Galeshewe, etc. Let us honour him by building functional localities inspired by good governance and ethical leadership. His life was characterised by Duty, Courage, Character, Conviction and Sincerity.

Hamba Kahle Mkhonto