A Working-Class Women Who Inspired our Village
We have often heard of Sandton City, as being the richest square mile in terms of the area having the high concentration of millionaires and property value in South Africa. And yet wealth should not only be counted in monetary terms but also in terms of the value of human capital produced within a particular square mile or settlement precinct, in a city, township, or village.
And it is in understanding the latter argument of “human capital development”, that the sad passing of Mavis “Ausi Nkele” Motaung should be celebrated in terms of her own self-worth as an ordinary woman. But what made her extraordinary in her life journey as a single working-class mother, was the contribution that she has made in not only providing for her family of five children but also being able to provide for their education towards their development and empowerment.
Her story was a history of the many profound ordinary women of Temba, who worked hard in their own right, and on their own as single parents – to hold the family nest together and to provide a values-driven family household for her children to be nurtured into responsible members of the Temba community. Many of these women, armed with basic education, endured the cold winters of dawn, to prepare a fire on a stove, primus stove, or ground fire to prepare warm water for washing her children and their breakfast and “skaftin” for school before she could dash off on foot for her eight to five job at the nearby Babelegi Industrial Park on the banks of the Apies River.
But what was most remarkable was the resoluteness and steadfastness of the women of our street or “square mile” towards instilling a sense of discipline and values in the “little boys and girls” of our street village. For these women, they understood the African adage that “it takes a village to raise a child”. And we, as children, all understood that every adult in our street was our parent irrespective of class or status. And it is the appreciation of that knowledge that saved and guarded our futures. All the families in our street/village – Mahlangus, Motaungs, Matjilas, Morokongs, Ramasodis, Morakas, Sebokedis, Mushis, Kgapolas, Tlhakus, and many others – appreciated their collective roles in the upbringing of all the children in our street/village.
Our untarred street was our classroom, where we learned the simple rules of life and loving our neighbors as we loved ourselves. Our parents were our educators and moral guardians, they were our guardian angels who guided our spiritual GPS. Our street was our playground, where we played many soccer games that gave us healthy bodies and minds. We learned to share bread and books and assisted each other with homework under candlelight. Before dusk, we were all taught to prepare the home fires for family dinners and to do our every day home chores. All these under the tutelage of the mothers of the village – who were collectively responsible for our well-being.
Despite living in what was a row of four-roomed (not four bedrooms) matchbox houses designed by the Bantu Administration of the Apartheid government (1942-1977), and later the Bophuthatswana Homeland (1977-1994), these dusty streets of our “square mile village” produced some of the best graduates and professionals in Temba and for the country. At the time of his untimely death in 1984, one of Ausi Nkele`s son, Oupa Farringdon Motaung was a law graduate from the then University of the North. Whilst her last born Bobo Motaung, is a Public Administration post-graduate from the University of the Western Cape.
On my last count, our square mile had produced more than twenty graduates, masters, doctoral and post-doctoral graduates from the various colleges and universities across the country including the University of the Limpopo, North West University, Medical University of South Africa, Sefako Makgatho University, University of Pretoria, University of the Western Cape, University of South Africa, University of Zululand, University of Cape Town, Rhodes University, Wits University, University of Johannesburg, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Tshwane University of Technology, Tshwane North TVET College and Tshwane South TVET College.
Professor Skepe Matljila – who is a distinguished Professor of Setswana at UNISA – would attest to the fact that that generation of mothers of our street/village, including Ausi Nkele, contributed immensely to the creation of the village environment that made us be who we have become today.
And as we lay to rest the last of the godmothers of our square mile – we should look back with pride on their collective values-driven, selfless parenting that shaped our destinies. Never the one who can pass my home without greeting and asking about our welfare, in you the heavens have stolen, the last of our generation of godmothers.
But we are comforted by the knowledge that you will be welcomed by all those mothers (and fathers) who were your trusted neighbors in the sacred grounds of heaven. Greet bo-Mama and bo-Papa for us. And May Your Beautiful Soul Rest in Eternal Peace. Robala ka Kgotso Motaung!
