LITMIR.BIZ

      Published in South Africa by:

      Wits University Press

      1 Jan Smuts Avenue

      Johannesburg

       www.witspress.co.za

      and

      June and Andrew Mlangeni Foundation

      Waverley Office Park

      125 Corlett Drive

      Johannesburg

      © Text: June and Andrew Mlangeni Foundation 2017

      © Images: Individual copyright holders

      Print 978-1-77614-086-2

      EPUB (Rest of world) 978-1-77614-089-3

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978.

      The June and Andrew Mlangeni Foundation acknowledges with thanks those who granted permission for the use of the small photographs on the cover: the Robben Island Mayibuye Archives, University of the Western Cape; the Nelson Mandela Foundation; Shikaya; Lionel Shapiro and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Efforts have been made to trace copyright owners but the Foundation will welcome any further information relating to these photographs.

      Researcher: Patrick Baloyi

      History adviser: Luli Callinicos

      Editor and project manager: Monica Seeber

      Cover design and layout by Hothouse South Africa

      Cover photograph of Andrew Mlangeni: Avo photography

      Printed by Creda Communications

      Acknowledgements

      The Trustees would like to express their gratitude to the many organisations and people who saw us through this book. We thank all those who provided support, talked things over, read, wrote, offered comments, allowed the authors to quote their remarks and assisted in the editing, proofreading and design.

      We thank Ntate, Seaparankwe, Isithwalwandwe Dr Andrew Mokete Mlangeni for enabling us to publish this book. Above all we thank his family, who supported and encouraged the Foundation in this endeavour.

      It was a long and difficult journey for the Foundation.

      Thanks to all the sponsors and in particular the following, without whom this book would not have found its way to the press:

      Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA)

      Eskom Holdings

      Forensic Data Analysts (FDA);

      Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited (IDC)

      Khauleza IT Solutions

      Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA)

      Transnet Group

      Thanks to managing trustee Sello Rasethaba, who ensured the coordination of the project and timeous intervention when there were obstacles.

      Last but not least, the Foundation begs forgiveness of all those who have been with us over the years and whose names we have failed to mention.

      The Honourable, Prof Hlengiwe Mkhize, MP Chairperson THE JUNE AND ANDREW MLANGENI FOUNDATION

      Foreword

      The publication of Andrew Mlangeni’s biography could not have come at a more opportune moment in the historical process. Aptly titled ‘The Backroom Boy: Andrew Mlangeni’s Story’, this book shares with the reader the value of making a contribution to a people’s cause in a classically selfless fashion, without seeking the glory of limelight attendant to leadership positions. As post-apartheid South Africa evolves in both intended and unintended ways there is much in the process that warrants looking back to analogous moments in history.

      Such an exercise is not only valuable in enabling us to avoid repeating mistakes of the past but serves to deepen our understanding of the possibilities of our human agency as individuals and at a collective level. Thus we get to understand that although thrown into historically given circumstances, we equally have the inherent power to change matters, to throw down the gauntlet to destiny in whatever ways are humanly possible.

      This makes sharing the lesson-laden, politically-charged life of figures such as Om Andrew (all elderly stalwarts of the struggle are affectionately called ‘Oom’, uncle, ‘Om’ for short) all the more necessary, if not indispensable. After the publication of the biographies of Om Andrew’s contemporaries Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Dennis Goldberg, Mike Dingake and others who have, incidentally, influenced his political development, it is only legitimate to expect Om Andrew to also claim his place in the exalted genre of South Africa’s expanding political biography. This amounts to the writing of history, our history, by documenting the lives of the leading individuals during the freedom struggle. It does not mean that history is the product of individual genius or of sacrifice alone. On the contrary, it affirms the importance of individuals within the tapestry of collective human reaction to a given historical situation. Like those of each of his contemporaries, Om Andrew’s life is but one of the numerous strands woven into the South African historical narrative.

      Through reading a book such as Om Andrew’s biography we appreciate that, now and again, nations fall into a sore need for some hard-nosed historical lessons as they try to pull through strangulating challenges thrown up by periods of sociopolitical misfortune. In South Africa’s case where else to turn but the glorious history of the struggle for justice and equality whose mobilising philosophy constitutes the framework of our shared vision today?

      The struggle for the entrenchment of a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and just society is not cast in certain terms and will, inexorably, suffer setbacks in the cut and thrust of political existence.

      In such moments it helps to look back to our troubled past to see how those before us rose to the challenges of the day. In ‘The Backroom Boy: Andrew Mlangeni’s Story’, the case is clear from even a casual reading of his life – Om Andrew evolved a temperament equal to the challenges of the day. A compelling view is emerging of an individual committed to the struggle of his people, acting to make a difference in concert with and under the leadership of his comrades and his people.

      Om Andrew is among this crop of individuals moulded by their social circumstances who have in turn acted to change given circumstances, within the parameters of the collectively shared vision.

      What stands out with exceptional distinction in Om Andrew’s life is his personal conduct, discipline, a commendable self-respect and his exemplary sense of purpose. That not much about the life of this remarkable individual is known, at least on the scale of his contemporaries, is probably thanks to his modesty. At least he has largely been an unknown quantity despite the fact that his political biography starts early on in his life at a secondary school level with such luminaries as OR Tambo, Joe Matthews and Duma Nokwe, and that his political maturity owes much to Ruth First, among others.

      Consequently, the time is right for a book to be written on the life and indeed contribution of one of the most self-effacing, humble and yet enthusiastically committed souls to the moral struggle for dignity, unity, justice, fairness and equality among human beings.

      Sadly, among the young generation of South Africans very few would have heard the name Andrew Mlangeni, despite the fact that in addition

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