Project name: Alternative History Project
Date of interview: 2007-09-09
Location of interview: Sebokeng, Gauteng
Language of interview: Sotho
Name of Interviewer/s: Dale McKinley & Ahmed Veriava
Name of Interviewee/s: Thulo Ezekiel Motseki
Name of translator: Joseph Matutoane
Name of transcriber: Moses Moremi
Audio file name: AHP_SEB_MotsekiThuloEzekiel_20070909a INTERVIEW WITH THULO EZEKIEL MOTSEKI.
Dale McKinley (DM): Ezekiel thank you very much for your time and for agreeing to talk to us. First of all, just for the record, can you state your full name?
Thulo Ezekiel Motseki (TEM): I am Thulo Ezekiel Motseki.
DM: Ezekiel feel free to talk in whatever ... the language that you want ... we have the translation so you don't have to speak in English, okay.
TEM: Okay.
DM: Ezekiel we are just going to start with some questions ... Where were you born and what year were you born?
TEM: I was born in Evaton, 1963, October 13.
DM: And have you lived in this area your entire life here Evaton, Sebokeng - have you stayed here all of your life?
TEM: I was born in Evaton and grew up there till 1968, when we moved to Sebokeng.
DM: And what did your parents do? What job, what work were your parents doing?
TEM: My father was working in Protea Electrician.
DM: And your mother?
TEM: My mother was working in Vaalpotris in Meyerton.
DM: That's the ceramic company
DM: So Ezekiel, in the 1960s and the 1970s when you were growing up here in Evaton this area here, tell us some of the memories that you have of growing up at that time - either good or bad or anything, what do you remember about that time?
TEM: What I remember is that in that time I was still young, I knew nothing about life, I just grow up nicely. I was not involved in any kinds of activities.
DM: And when the '70s came and you were a teenager, you were a young man - did you get involved with anything that was going on here in the 70s or in the 80s?
Thulo Ezekiel Motseki: 2007-09-09a: 1
TEM: When I was growing up in the 1970s I was still in primary. There was the 1976 uprising - we were a little bit involved but not that much because we were still young. I was going to church and doing my schoolwork. During the week I was going to school. Saturday I was playing soccer and Sunday, to church.
DM: Your education - how far did you go in school?
TEM: I studied until Std. 7 because my father passed away in 1973.
DM: When you left school what did you do?
TEM: I went looking for a job.
DM: What kind of a job, what was your first job that you got?
TEM: It was very hard to find a job, and I got the job at the abattoir in Evaton.
DM: What was it like working at the abattoir as a young man?
TEM: I was working at the meat department, putting meat in the fridges. After slaughtering, I was packaging boxes of meat from different departments.
DM: And working conditions there at that time, in that place, how were they?
TEM: It was very hard but I had no choice besides to work because of the death of my father.
DM: So was there ... what I'm trying to ask is that in the 1970s as a black worker in that place, did you feel a lot of racial discrimination or were you treated badly at your place of work?
TEM: Even though there was still segregation but to be honest we were treated well as workers.
DM: How long did you work at the abattoir?
TEM: For two years.
DM: And then where did you move?
TEM: I left because of low wages and then I managed to get the job in SAMANCOR.
(Shifting seats ... end of tape) END OF AHP_SEB_MotsekiThuloEzekiel_20070909a Thulo Ezekiel Motseki: 2007-09-09a: 2
Creator: McKinley, Dale Motseki, Thulo Veriava, Ahmed
Contributing Institutions: SAHA; MATRIX: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online at Michigan State University
Contributors: Joseph Matutoane (Translator) Moses Moremi (Transcriber)
Biography: Forty-four years old at the time of the interview, Thulo Ezekiel Motseki was born in nearby Evaton and moved to Sebokeng at a young age. His father died when he was ten years old and he and his four siblings survived from his mother’s occasional work. Thulo achieved a Standard 7 education but then went to work in an abattoir to help out the family. In 1986 he got a job at SAMANCOR and supported his entire extended family for the next fifteen years. In the late 1990s he began to get regularly sick as a result of work conditions. His wife left him because he could not father any children due to becoming infertile from his sickness. In 2001 he was retrenched and since then his health has steadily deteriorated to the point where he now is very weak and mostly bedridden. Thulo continues to fight for compensation from his former employers. He lives in a private house with relatives.
Description: Part one of the the first interview with Thulo Ezekiel Motseki, a gravely ill retrenched worker, was conducted by Dale McKinley and Ahmed Veriava in Sebokeng in 2007 as part of the South African History Archive's Alternative History Project, titled 'Forgotten Voices in the Present'.
Date: September 9, 2007
Location: Sebokeng, Gauteng, Republic of South Africa