Freedom Never Rests by James Kilgore

Author:James Kilgore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jacana Media
Published: 2011-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

MTHETHO AND PETER sat with Monwabisi under the marquee. Susan, wearing a bright blue African-print dress, stood nearby chatting with a local church minister. She’d be delivering the keynote.

Peter surveyed the scene. The rough-hewn Sivuyile High soccer ground was bursting with the excitement of the occasion. The lively sax of Kaya Mahlangu serenaded the crowd. Peter didn’t normally listen to jazz but this was upbeat. Maybe it was just the feeling of being solidly on the road to success.

‘Who ever heard of famous artists coming to small towns in the Eastern Cape?’ said Monwabisi. ‘This is the greatest day ever.’ He went on to recall how the tapes of Mahlangu’s band Sakhile used to echo through COSATU House in Joburg during the State of Emergency. ‘Those were our darkest days,’ said the former shop steward.

Peter recognised that wistful tone in Monwabisi’s voice. He sounded just like Susan when she talked about the past. He was beginning to realise how important history was in South Africa. Any company that wanted to succeed here had to recognise that. While Monwabisi reminisced, Peter took in the aroma of the freshly slaughtered meat sizzling on the oil-drum braais, the perfect complement to the sounds of South Africa’s greatest sax player. This launching of Pellmar’s Water for Freedom Project was history in the making.

South African Breweries had added to the joy with a subsidised beer garden. A draught was just fifty cents. Next to the beer garden a huge truck replica of a Coca-Cola can dispensed free cool drinks to youngsters and teetotallers. Winding its way across the field, a queue of grandmothers and delighted screaming kids waited to refill their plastic cups with Coke and Fanta.

Susan surprised Peter by delivering most of her address in isiXhosa. He had no idea she was so fluent. He’d managed to learn a few phrases, but the clicks were a real challenge. What better message could there be for a new South Africa than a blonde woman in an African dress speaking the local language? In the English portion of her speech she praised the ‘remarkable job’ the municipality of Ukusa had done in bringing formerly disparate local authorities under one umbrella, calling the first public-private partnership in prepaid meters ‘the kind of unity that will drive our nation forward’.

The formalities closed with singing by the Bopape Methodist Choir. Their conductor, Mr Xoseni, dedicated their final number, ‘Wade in the Water’, to the ‘mastermind behind this project, Mr Peter Franklin’.

When the choir concluded, Susan, Peter, Mayor Siziba and a host of local dignitaries walked through the school gate down the dirt road to house number 483D, where a red ribbon stretched across the front garden of the four-room house of the Damane family.

The TV crew and flashing news cameras moved in as Susan and the Mayor cut the ribbon with a metre-long pair of cardboard scissors. Then Susan stepped forward and turned on a shiny brass tap just a few feet from the front door. The water splashed in the concrete drain below.

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