“I Was There”

Nickie Smith

South Africa is about to witness a son of our liberation era step forward once more — not with a gun, not with a slogan, not with a clenched fist at a rally — but with a book.

Hezekiel Kgosimang Mothupi, 90 years old.

Struggle veteran. Witness of the unfiltered truth.

He was there.

And now, for the first time, his own handwritten memories — his own words — are formed into a book.

Title: I Was There

Author: Hezekiel Mothupi

Date of Launch: 22 November 2025

Time: 10:00 AM

Venue: Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg

Publisher: ISTRU Publishers

This is not a history lesson.

It is living history speaking for itself.

A Memory Written in Blood, Ink and Witness

Born in 1932, Mothupi was raised inside an era that demanded bravery that could not be bought — the kind of bravery that created scars you cannot erase.

He lived through the borderless night of apartheid.

He lived through strong men being broken.

He lived through a system designed to crush minds, hopes, language and dignity.

He was there.

And now — after nine decades of carrying the fire — he has chosen to document it not for nostalgia, but for accountability.

The Making of the Book

The book is not ghostwritten by academics trying to romanticise the past.

It is built through a partnership between ages — two generations forming one voice.

• Old, lived memory
• Young, disciplined recording
• Truth, unfiltered

About 70% of the book comes directly from his own manuscripts — handwritten — the way our elders kept truths safe before there were laptops, PDFs and podcasts.

Soweto Donda Mandlanzi — who sat with Mr. Mothupi to listen, record and shape these pages — didn’t write it as an author polishing someone else’s poetry.

He wrote it as a son preserving a legacy.

Long interviews.

Tears.

Humour.

Awkward silences.

Heavy pauses.

Pain that had to be spoken slowly.

Memory becoming printed evidence.

“I Was There” As A Cultural Moment

This is not simply a launch — it is a ritual.

It is a moment where the generation of Mothupi and the generation of Mandlanzi meet at the same table to preserve one thing:

Truth.

Our national memory is one of the greatest battlefields in South Africa — more contested than land, more fragile than politics.

This book does not judge who was right or wrong.

It doesn’t rewrite events for applause.

It is a witness account.

It is testimony.

And he signs it with his mouth and his hand:

“I was there.”

Why This Launch Matters

We often say “our heroes are dying without telling their stories.”

Well — here is a hero telling his story while he is still alive.

We should not miss that.

Not just as an event.

But as a cultural responsibility.

22 November 2025 — 10AM — Apartheid Museum.

History will not be read second-hand that day.

It will speak.

In his voice.

Because he was there