Let�s build a monument for van Rensburg � Dingake
Onalenna Kelebeile | Tuesday June 27, 2017 16:29
Speaking at the memorial service of the fallen hero in Serowe on Saturday, Dingake remembered their journey through the South African Apartheid era when he was still schooling. Dingake remembers well that he joined the African National Congress around 1950, during the turbulent political years in South Africa. He said the political upheavals started with 156 leaders of the liberation movement charged with treason followed by a petition of 20,000 women who were against that country’s then discriminatory laws.
“In Alexandar township where I was staying, there was a bus boycott that lasted for three months compelling us to walk nine miles to and from work every morning. One day I overheard whites saying that if we can walk for three months for only a penny, then we can achieve our freedom,” he said.
During the treason trial the struggle comrades had to face off with the police who were using live bullets while they used bricks from a construction site nearby. “In 1957-1958 we met van Rensburg, a young Afrikaner who had resigned his diplomatic post because he hated how the blacks were treated,” he said.
He said van Rensburg had been appointed the Vice Consul to the then Belgian Congo but he disagreed with the Apartheid policies of his government and resigned 15 months later. In 1959 van Rensburg travelled to Britain where he met an old ANC friend whom he helped launch the Boycott Movement against his country’s racial policies.
According to Dingake van Rensburg returned to South Africa in 1960 just a week after the Sharpeville shootings and his passport was confiscated, forcing him to flee to Swaziland.
Van Rensburg was, together with other South African exiles, flown to Serowe where he was warmly received by Seretse Khama. Dingake said at some point, van Rensburg joined the Liberal Party that was despised by ANC because it was not as radical as ANC.
“We thought there was something about him, so we pursued him and urged him to address a meeting to share with us his experiences as a Vice Consul. It was clear and evident that he hated Apartheid. When a day of mourning the Sharpeville massacre was organised, all the oppressed were to stay at home. Some had to leave the country and van Rensburg was one of them and he came to Serowe,” he said.
A special moment for these two struggle comrades was when they met in a crowded bus where Dingake was impressed by Van Rensburg’s gesture of vacating his seat and offering it to an elderly woman. “When we arrived in Palapye, I introduced myself to him and his wife and they told me about their Swaneng projects.
We met again in 1980 when I arrived from Robben Island,” he said. Dingake would surprisingly receive an invitation from van Rensburg who had organised a reference group and informed them about a newspaper and sought our opinions on whether it be registered as a cooperative or a trust.
When Mmegi Publishing Trust was registered, Dingake became the chairperson while Methaetsile Leepile was elected executive secretary and managing editor. “That is when we became very close. He was also a friend to the late Dr Kenneth Koma and I was also a BNF member,” he said.
He added that in 1994 BNF performed well and attained 30% popular vote and seats in Parliament. He said van Rensburg was not a card carrying member and he recruited him into the movement because BNF had accepted his ideals of education with production. He would later be elected unopposed in the BNF’s education portfolio until the 1998 split in Palapye. Dingake said the unfortunate thing was that van Rensburg was accused of having wielded a revolver.
“He was so furious and demanded an apology which he was granted, but he resigned from the party and we remained social friends,” Dingake said. His eldest son, Masego Thomas van Rensburg said his father always told them to work with their own hands and skills to develop the community and he exposed them to a taste of both worlds. “We would sleep in a five-star hotel, but tomorrow we will be digging trenches to construct a school. He made sure that he involved us in his work and that was our best education,” Masego said.
He said his father always had a magnetic compelling vision to inspire people. He appreciated the generous welcome his family received from Seretse Khama in 1960 and said otherwise they would not be in Botswana. “He had his freedom and liberty back after he resigned from his Vice Consul position and he transferred those liberties to us. He taught us in our upbringings that we can be the change that we want to see,” he said.