On Wednesday June 11 2025, mentors and mentees in the cultural sphere, are expected to descend on the residence of internationally acclaimed cultural icon Molefe Pheto at Bangadile Farm, in Magalies, to celebrate the illustrious life of the living legend turning 90 years of age.
The June 11, 2025 event in Magalies will be the second in a series marking the long and winding road of a cause-driven liberation journey of 54 years of African Cultural Activism by Molefe Pheto since 1971. The first, in a series to mark Molefe Pheto’s 90th birthday celebrations, was hosted by Funda Art Centre on Afrika Day last month on May 25, 2025.
The elaborate preparations going into these celebrations typify the life of the man that wore many hats due to the multifaceted roles he played in the national liberation struggle. An array of musicians, artists, teachers, novelists, film makers, sculptors, actors, journalists, dancers, singers and liberation activists of the 1970s are gearing to put together a memorable, artistic programme fit for a living legend.
The Molefe Pheto project comprises a devoted generation; trained, nurtured, mentored, and had worked with him locally and abroad. Author Dr Nape Motana and producer of a documentary on women that survived John Vorster detentions, together with Mmagauta Molefe, are co-convenors with Poet and activist Boitumelo Mofokeng servicing as coordinator.
The project boasts an international and intergenerational collective of poets, journalists, authors, archivist, visual and performance artists, as well as educators representing a broad spectrum of South African cultural backgrounds and spheres. And all have come together to express gratitude to Pheto, whose journey has been as issue-driven as it has been task-full.
Pheto traces his roots in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg where he was born on June 11, 1935. He stamped his footprints in Soweto as a teacher at Orlando High School. Like the women who survived John Vorster Police Station, Pheto is familiar with the bitter taste of 10 months detained there under South Africa’s Terrorism Act of 1963.
Pheto’s life story is as much about him as it is about his people: their dreams and nightmares; hopes and despairs; anger and courage; promises and disappointments; and a determined shouldering of the belief that someday we will all be free.
Doyen of black theatre Gibson Kente, who wrote no less than 23 plays, also had defining artistic moments with legendary Pheto.
Pheto was the positive motivating force and formidable Black Consciousness reference point that injected a liberation perspective which found theatrical expression giving birth to Gibson Kente’s heartrending masterpiece How Long?
Written and first performed in 1973, How Long brought on stage the brutal police action and its attendant bureaucratic oppressive machinery.
Kente wrote the play egged on by the rising wave of Black Consciousness movement sweeping the country and impressing upon all cultural works to reflect the material conditions of Black people in South Africa.
How Long was a response and got distinguished as a political play that Kente wrote. Because of its impact, especially when performed in the townships, the play was later banned and Kente was imprisoned when an attempt was made to film the play in 1976.
The June 16, 1976 Student Uprisings was not without the spirit of the awakening of the people behind it. Pheto was an active part of that moving spirit.
His thirst and hunger for liberation saw him forced into exile in 1977, where he joined the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania in 1980.
Six years into exile in the United Kingdom, London Publisher Allison and Busby published his book in 1983 titled And the Night Fell – memoirs of a political prisoner which was banned in his country.
Pheto’s heart remained deposited in the land of his dispossessed afflicted people back home. The struggle served as an unbreakable link by which to stand by them.
On his return from exile he settled in Bangadile Farm, in Magalies, publishing his second book titled The Bull from Moruleng: Vistas of Home and Exile in 2014.
One Response
Thanks very much my dear Tower, Cde Oupa Ngwenya for the informative masterpiece words of wisdom, is a tale told by the legendary journalist of your colossus of calibre, full of sound and fury signifying ( William Shakespeare, Macbeth) the Cde Phetho. May his soul RIP.