About the Author

In 1986/7, boys at Enkolweni Primary School in Soweto were playing war games when Mduduzi halted play and addressing his peers, told them that the armed struggle against apartheid was not a good strategy because it was bound to fail. He said that based on his reading of the books of Daniel and Revelation, the  armed struggle would not deliver South Africa because the geopolitical alignments were not in favour of the oppressed. He said the difficulty lay in the armed struggle being predicated on support from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and yet the USSR was headed for a fall and the USA would emerge as the sole superpower —for a while, before itself imploding into subservience to European powers. He recommended Africans seek an alternative path to liberation. Some of the boys were starry eyed not knowing what he was talking about and at least one was visibly angry but did not speak much. The liberation organisations were still banned and political speech forbidden and so others could not state their views openly —it was a most uncomfortable stand-off… Three or four years later, in 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, the USSR disintegrated, and the antiapartheid liberation organisations were herded into negotiations with the apartheid government somewhat unprepared. His confidence in the prophetic Word remains unshaken.