It was in the trade union movement that Cde Serame Jacob “Jake” Hlanyane got his political baptism his life was never the same as politics defined and guided him until his untimely death. In 1983, armed with a deep understanding of the struggle waged by the people of South Africa against a repressive regime of Apartheid that Jake’s political activism came into the open in defence of his own right as a citizen and those of his neighbours and compatriots.
In October 1983 frustrated by a local authority system that did not deliver services to the residents, political activists and residents resolved to form a civic movement that would represent and fight for their interest. The Vaal Civic Association (VCA) was born.
The VCA was modelled in a manner that it would have its roots in the various townships and zones of the Vaal Triangle. Talking about its strategy at its launch, Dr Motlana hailed the strategy of the VCA and commented that it would come to be a very strong movement in time to come. Indeed, the VCA started to establish zonal and township committees formed by the citizens in those townships and zones. The purpose of these committees was to enable the VCA to be close to the people that the VCA Cde Jake was elected onto the Zone Three Committee and thus became one of its first leaders.
Soon after they were formed these committees started to organise the Anti-Election Campaign against the soon-to-be-introduced Black Local Authorities (BLA) local government system. Various meetings were held where residents were residents informed of the uselessness of the new system and why it had to be rejected. The VCA succeeded in mobilising the people against this farce and while the elections were held they were characterised by low numbers of residents at the pools and the system was introduced and forced onto the residents.
At the national level the masses were organising against the new Tricameral Parliament – in terms of which Coloureds and Indians were brought into separate Parliaments thus having a superior parliament for whites, and junior partners in the Coloured and Indian Parliaments. This ploy by the Apartheid Regime was meant to divide those who were opposed to it. In the same year, 1983, the United Democratic Front (UDF) was formed to oppose the implementation of the Tricameral Parliament
The UDF was a coalition of various civic, youth, women, students, and health workers – indeed people from all walks of life. The VCA affiliated to the UDF after it was formed thus forging a link between local struggles of bread-and-butter issues to the broader struggle of national liberation, freedom and democracy led by the then banned African National Congress (ANC).
The formation of the VCA became a catalyst to new other organisations, the Vaal Youth Congress (VAYCO) and the Vaal Organisation of Women (VOW) strengthened and reenergised other existing structures such as the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) and the Vaal Council of Churches (VCC), and the Trade Union movement in the area like MAWU and CCAWUSA and others.
By January 1984 the VCA was consolidating itself and investigating ways of how to introduce paid membership cards; how to raise funds and become sustainable and how to further empower its members through intensive and deepened political education so that they become truly informed servants of the people.
According to predictions of the time, the newly-elected Lekoa Town Council, with barely six months announced huge rent increases to be paid by residents. This announcement went squarely in the face of the residents protests of “Asinamali”. The VCA could not stand aside when this happens.
The Zonal and Township Committees began a series of meetings from August 1984 leading too September with the community and other structures in the Vaal to actively oppose this rent increase.
Cde Jake was part of the leadership that did community mobilisation for the 3 September 1984 VCA march. People marched from different places but Cde Hlanyane led the march from the Evaton Catholic Church in Small Farms to the Council offices at Houtkop to present a memorandum with the following demands,
• The reversal of the unilateral decision for rent increases,
• Resignation and dissolution of Lekoa Town Council and its councillors who were puppets of the apartheid system.
• The release of political prisoners and,
• The scrapping of the tricameral parliament, which excluded African communities from representation in the political decision making and running of the country.
The march on 3 September was successfully conducted by Hlanyane and his comrades as the leadership. Unfortunately, the march was intercepted by the police before it reached its destination and violence broke out in the Vaal and later in the whole county. From a simple township march around the rent increases and other legitimate demands Jake and his comrades in the VCA, the UDF and AZAPO and other organisations such as COSAS, VAYCO, VOW, some were arrested and later charged under of the then Internal Security Laws – notably Section 29 of the Internal Security provided for the detention of the people deemed to be suspects for a period of 180 days without trial and without being seen by the family and the public.
These comrades were kept in separate prisons from October 1984 until when the 22 detainees were formally charged with treason, murder and organising illegal gatherings. They only made their first court appearance on 11 June 1985.
While most of the accused came from the Vaal Triangle, the State could not risk holding the trial in the Vaal or Johannesburg, or even Krugersdorp as they feared that many people would attend the trial and support the accused. The trial was eventually held 70 kilometres from Johannesburg in Delmas. The trial came to be known as the ‘Delmas Treason Trial’ and at the end these leaders of VCA and UDF were found guilty as charged. In 1989 they lodged an appeal against the sentences with Supreme Court of Appeal; ultimately they were released from prison.
Cde Hlanyane served ANC under the leadership of the late Levai Mbatha as Branch Treasurer, later elected as an additional member in ward 40, Mvimbi Mashinini Branch. Other leadership roles include serving as SACP Greater Evaton Branch as the Secretary. In the year 2000, cde Hlanyane was deployed by ANC to be a Councillor in Ward 40, in addition he served in the following Council Committees: Land Tribunal, Whippery of which he served with humility and political distinction for 2 terms until 18 May 2011 Municipal Elections.
ADDITIONAL SOURCE: Emfuleni Local Municipality
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