Special Report Transcript Episode 35, Section 5, Time 15:21

In a way one cannot speak about the Eastern Cape, that axis of eighties resistance, without resurrecting the name of the late Matthew Goniwe. Father of Cradock and founder of the United Democratic Front in the region Goniwe’s impact resonated throughout the hearings held in his hometown this week. Xolile Ntozini was a student at Sam Xhallie High when Goniwe was principal. It was 1983, the year a massive opposition front, the UDF would explode onto the South African scene and a year that changed the life of this young man from Middelburg. // Mr. Goniwe was my principal in 1983 and he asked questions like ”is there any organisation going on in Middelburg, such as political organisations?” I said there was nothing going on there that time. And it is when he gave me advice how to explain to my friends, my colleagues, my soccer club members how the whole story is about this United Democratic Front. // And were you inspired by his ideas about the UDF? // Yes I was because here in Cradock I was one of the members of the Youth Congress of Cradock. That is why I do respond to that. // So what did you hear when you came back in 1984? // What we heard is that our principal Mr. Matthew Goniwe was going to be transferred back to Graaf-Reinett. He was from Graaf-Reinett, but he was staying here. And now we are going to have a white principal, Mr. Visagie in the high school. That’s when things go upside down, because we didn’t want him to leave. We didn’t want the white principal in that school. We still want our principal here. It affected me too much. I disliked what happened, because that principal came with new rules, new things here that we didn’t know. It’s when I decided to go back to Middelburg and continue with my job there to push up the organisation.

Notes: Cradock; Matthew Goniwe; Xolile Daniel Ntozini