Dancing in the Dust by Kagiso Lesego Molope

Author:Kagiso Lesego Molope
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mawenzi House Publishers
Published: 2019-08-26T00:00:00+00:00

11

DURING THE NEXT few days the sun shone brightly. It was warmer than was typical for winter, and the air smelled of chimney smoke. Some neighbours burned fires in their coal stoves early in the morning to shield themselves from the cold, even if it was not that unbearable outside. Some had not paid the electricity bill and had to use coal to cook. Mapitse was one of those—she had spent so much money on the wedding that her house was dark for the next month. The streets were deserted because a state of emergency had been declared. Up and down the street hippos—the armoured vehicles earned their name because of their enormity— moved at a snail’s pace. There were people in them but you could only see their green helmets and the barrels of large guns sticking out the windows.

I decided to go and see if anyone was at the headquarters. We still had no idea where Tshepo, Mohau, and their aunts were. Their grandfather was not even sitting outside anymore because his health was failing him. Every day he and his wife went to the police station to find their children, and every day they were turned away with a different story. Neighbours rallied around them, comrades came in to see that they were eating and sleeping well. Some people—I did not recognize them—were coming in and running little errands for them, going to the shops and buying them bread, getting them milk. Sometimes someone even came to help clean their house.

I also helped when I was not at Keitumetse’s side in the hospital, reading to her, bringing her food, and letting her know what was happening in the outside world. I thought she had decided to brace herself for disappointment because she had stopped asking about Mohau. She must have been too afraid to find out what was going on. I never said anything either, and since she knew I would not have withheld information from her, it seemed to me that she might have assumed that I knew just as much as she did. But I intended to see what was happening, maybe get a clue as to where the comrades may have been taken. If they were not in Pretoria then they were probably being held in Johannesburg, where there were other SASO headquarters. I might be able to phone comrades there and contact someone who would know where to find them. It made perfect sense that they would have been moved. Not only would it take them away from their closest group of comrades, but it would make it impossible for them to see their families, an even greater punishment.

School had come to an end at some point during that week. Instead of only a handful of students being there, no one was going at all. I had not seen the inside of a classroom since my sister was in hospital, and the only reason Mama did not insist that I go was because she herself knew that I would be the only person wearing black and white in the whole township.

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