It is high time for people to unite and stand up for themselves and stop relying on the government to do things for them. These were the remarks uttered by the renowned HIV and human rights activist Mandla Majola during his launch of his new book titled ‘Post Apartheid Community Based Activism’.
The event was held at Movement for Change Social Justice (MCSJ) offices at NY 3A in Gugulethu on Friday 6 June.
Majola, who dedicated almost all his life fighting for human rights, said the book was written by both Prof Louise Penner and Prof Rajini Srikanth from the University of Massachusetts Boston in the United States of America (USA). The book is about his life as an activist.
“I started to be an activist at a young age in 1999 when I joined a club called Young Romans FC in Gugulethu. We started by forming an association called the South African Mobile Library Association (SAMLA). The aim was to have a mobile library in Gugulethu using a truck where the children could easily access books in the area. In 2000 I joined the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) as a volunteer because I could see that many people were dying with Aids related diseases. So, I wanted to be involved. In 2008 I joined the Social Justice Coalition (SJC),” he explained.
The 54-year-old man said he became a provincial coordinator for TAC in 2001 before he was promoted as a national organiser in 2003.
“The same year (2003), I was elected during the national congress to be a general secretary. I was so much involved in HIV struggle working with different people and some of them died with HIV/Aids-related illnesses,” he stated, adding that because he was working with people suffering with HIV related illness, he developed depression in 2004 and he decided to resign in April.
He said he stayed for two months before he joined TAC again and he became the national adviser. “I worked as a district coordinator, because in 2004 there were already ideas of implementing ARVs and wanted to monitor the government if it was committed to implementing ARVs roll out. At that time, I was based in Khayelitsha and there were many socio-economic problems, which included rapes, tuberculosis, HIV etc,” he recalled.
Majola said he was instrumental in the formation of the SJC in 2008.
He said in 2010 the TAC founder Zackie Achmat asked him to cross the floor to join him in the JSC to assist him.”JSC was formed by TAC during the xenophobic attacks in 2008, but in 2009 it changed and focused on the problem of criminal and justice systems and water and sanitation. In 2012 I went back to TAC again until 2015. In 2016 I completed my master’s in philosophy at Stellenbosch University,” he explained,adding that he was hired at the University of Cape Town as community engagement manager in the Department of Division for Social and Behavioural Science under school of Public Health.
Majola said he worked in the university for five years. He said he went as far as doing his second master’s in Public Health at the University of Cape Town this year. He stated that he first met with the professors who wrote his book in 2006 while he was working for TAC in Khayelitsha.
“I met with Prof Penner and Srikanth through Prof Padraig O’Malley from the University of Massachusetts Boston when they visited our offices. They brought their students here. Since then these professors kept on coming to our offices every two years. All along they were collecting data about what I’m doing (my role as an activist) without me knowing. In 2022 they told me that they want to write a book about me which I resisted and told them that they can’t write about me alone, there were other people that I was working with,” explained Majola, adding that he later accepted it as they told him that they wanted him to be the main focus. Mojala described the book as the voice of the voiceless. He said the book is enlightening people about the socio-economic challenges that they are currently facing. “People mustn’t think that the socio-economic problems that they are facing are made by God. No, they are man made and it’s us who can change. Not even the government or politicians can change them. We need to unite and fight,” said Majola, adding that the politicians are fighting for their stomach.
The book is available online and at the MJSC offices in NY3A in Gugulethu. The professors are intending to make it available in all the universities in the USA.
