The Individual, Auto/biography and History in South Africa

expressed had been “essentially honest”. After being convinced by Tsotsi of their errors
of interpretation of the tasks of the NEUM as defined by the Ten Point Programme, they
“virtually” promised to “mend the errors of their ways”. 63
In contrast, Tsotsi described three other SOYA members ‐ Vutela, Tukwayo and
Madikizela ‐ as “villains”, who had defended the political positions of “Jaffeism” in an
open SOYA meeting. The “slimy” Madikizela had been “the most poisonous of the lot”,
who used “the demagogue” Vutela “as a battering ram” and Tukwayo “as a cymbal”.
“Madikizela is to Vutela as Kies is to Jaffe”, Tsotsi reasoned. Instead of “rid[ing]
roughshod” over them, Tsotsi had chosen to interrogate the political character of
“Jaffeism”. In so doing, he and Sihlali had chosen to adopt a “more paternal attitude”,
and to help them solve their problems as “some of the senior leadership of the
movement”. The existence of a “senior leadership” was demonstrated, according to
Tsotsi: “It was there in the flesh for them to behold and they would have to learn that
humility is the beginning of political wisdom”. 64
The assertion of a senior movement leadership by Wycliffe Tsotsi in the late 1950s
coincided with a recognition by Leo Sihlali that the successful making of a ‘proper and
worthy’, committed political activist required a biographic model of political leadership
for people to learn from and emulate. If this were not present the result could be
‘mutilation’, ‘caricature’ and an ‘unworthy human being’. In this biographic order of
politics, in which Tabata’s biography was increasingly projected as a model to be
followed, person formation and political expression were tied into forms of political
allegiance and systems of paternalism and patronage. The assertion of authority by
leaders was accompanied by the exercise of organisational discipline over activists
deemed to have strayed from the fold or to have breached political principle. These
violations were also seen as expressions of biographic deviation, as rival political
factions led activists astray. Tabata accused Jaffe’s supporters of expressing
63 Wycliffe Tsotsi to I.B. Tabata, 4 June 1958, I.B. Tabata Collection, BC 925.
64 Wycliffe Tsotsi to I.B. Tabata, 4 June 1958, I.B. Tabata Collection, BC 925.
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