Zakes Mda - The Madonna of Excelsior

The elders of the church bowed their heads and praised the Lord for His magnanimity.

THE ELDERS of the church were right. The devil was on the loose in the Free State platteland. Grabbing upstanding volk by their genitalia and dragging them along a path strewn with the body parts of black women. Parts that had an existence independent of the women attached to them. Parts that were capable of sending even the most devout citizen into bouts of frenzied lust.

But wily as Lucifer might be, he was not going to succeed in his designs to consign the volk to eternal damnation. God always looked after His own.

These sins of our mothers happened in front of our eyes. Hence some of us became blind. And have remained so to this day. Those sins that we did not see with our own eyes, or that we did not hear about in places where we gathered to celebrate our lives, we read about in The Friend newspaper. Reports of wholesale miscegenation in the Free State platteland abounded. Tlotlo le wele makgwabane, the people said. A free-for-all. Open season. A feast of miscegenation.

The Friend , 7 January 1971:

The first three of a number of persons who will be charged in the Regional Court, Bloemfontein, for offences under the Immorality Act appeared in court yesterday.

Anna Tsomela, a 36-year-old African woman with a lightskinned, fair-haired baby of three months in her arms who, she said, was the child of the White man arrested with her, was found guilty under the Act and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for three years.

Constable Johannes David Grisel, of S.A. Police, Reddersburg, gave evidence of how the light delivery van in which she was travelling with a White man of Bloemfontein, Petrus François Smit, was trailed by him and how they were arrested on a lonely farm road near Reddersburg.

He said that as a result of information received, he followed the van when it left Reddersburg at about 7 p.m. on 1 October last year. About 16 km from Reddersburg on the road to Bloemfontein the vehicle turned off into a farm road leading to the farm Mierfontein. Constable Grisel was joined by another policeman working with him and they pursued the light delivery van with their police vehicle.

When the light delivery van left Reddersburg, Tsomela was sitting in the back of the vehicle and the White man was driving. When they stopped the van both were sitting in the front and the baby, obviously of mixed blood, was with them. Tsomela’s breasts were bared and her dress was pulled up high. He arrested the couple.

Dr B.J.B. Faul, district surgeon at Reddersburg, said that he examined the child in court in October last year at the request of the police. It was obviously of mixed blood and if Tsomela, who was an African woman, was the mother, the father must have been a White man.

In her statement to the magistrate Tsomela said she started to work for the White man and his family on a farm near Virginia some years ago. After some time the man’s wife moved to Bloemfontein and she had to look after him on the farm. After they had been staying there alone for about two years, he started giving her some of the gin he drank and later they became intimate.

About a year ago she became pregnant. The White man then moved to Bloemfontein and, because there was no accommodation for her in the city, he took her to her sister in Wepener. From there she went to Lesotho where the baby was born and then she returned to her father who was in Reddersburg.

The White man obtained her address by writing to her sister and then also wrote to her. On 1 October he arrived there and told her that he had brought her something. He took her in his light delivery van to a spot on the farm road to Mierfontein where he stopped to show her what he had brought her. There were groceries, bread and meat which he showed her, but before he could show her everything the police arrived.

In her statement Tsomela also said that she had no complaints against the White man. He at least provided for his child. Her other four children she had to bring up on her own.

The magistrate said that Tsomela should realise the seriousness of her offence. She had been committing immorality with a White man over a long period and there had been miscegenation, which it was the purpose of the Act to prevent. The serious light in which the offence was seen by the legislature was indicated by the fact that the maximum sentence provided was seven years’ imprisonment.

In view of the fact that she had made a clean breast of everything, that she had no previous convictions and that she was now saddled with the burden of another child to provide for, the magistrate said her sentence of nine months would be suspended for three years, however, on condition that she was not during that period found guilty of a similar offence and that she did not leave the Republic of South Africa before 15 February when she would be required to appear in court to give evidence against Petrus François Smit.

The Friend , 7 January 1971:

In another court a young White man, Johannes J. Oosthuizen (26), of 9 Goddard Street, Bloemfontein, appeared together with a 16-year-old African woman before Mr P. Geldenbuys. No evidence was led and they were remanded until 16 February. Oosthuizen is on bail of R50. Bail of R50 was also allowed for the African girl, but has not yet been provided.

The Friend , 23 January 1971:

A mother of three sat quietly with an arm around her young son outside the Bloemfontein Regional Court while a magistrate, Mr A.W. van Zyl, was told how her husband had put his hand under the dress of a 19-year-old African school teacher and then offered her R5 if she consented to have relations with him.

A 33-year-old former traffic inspector, Barend Jacobus Nolan, formerly of Rouxville, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment suspended for three years after he was found guilty of attempting to contravene the Immorality Act.

According to the evidence led by the key witness, Cecilia Mapeta, of the farm Valbankspoort in the Rouxville district, on the evening of 4 November she heard a car approaching the hut in which she stayed.

She went out to meet the car, which was driven by Nolan. He called to her and told her to tell the pupils she taught not to play in the road. He then told her to get into his car and he would take her to a gate which he wanted closed.

She climbed into the front of the car with him but when they arrived at the gate, he did not stop. Nolan suggested to her that they should have a love affair. She refused him.

They carried on driving until they came to a grove of bluegum trees some 13 km out of Rouxville on the Aliwal North road. Nolan parked the car under the trees, switched off the lights and again suggested to her that they have an affair.

For the second time she refused him. He grabbed her arm and twisted it. She started crying and he hit her. Nolan undid the shorts he was wearing and made an indecent suggestion to her. He also put his hand up her dress. After she pushed him away and told him to stop it, he offered her R5 to have intercourse with him.

While they were arguing, a car’s lights appeared and Nolan pushed her off the seat to the floor of the motor car. The car drew up about 12 yards behind Nolan’s parked car and a European man climbed out.

She said that while lying on the floor of the car she heard a man ask Nolan what he was doing there. Nolan replied, “Ou Piet. ”, she did not hear the rest. Suddenly the car was started and reversed for about six yards. Miss Mapeta jumped out of the car and ran away.

Const. P.W.A. Nel, of the South African Police, said in evidence that on 4 November, acting on information he had received, he drove in his private car to the spot where Nolan was parked.