In a different time by Peter Harris is a book that provides an invaluable and personal perspective of South
Africa at the height of repression.
In a different time by Peter Harris is a book that provides an invaluable and personal perspective of South
Africa at the height of repression.
It tells the story of the Delmas Four: Jabu Masina, Ting Ting Masango, Neo Potsane and Joseph Makhura, who under direct orders from Chris Hani, the commander of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), infiltrated South Africa as a highly experienced and trained assassination squad.
The story tells of their operations in the country, their arrest and subsequent trial for a slew of charges including high treason carrying the ultimate penalty of death.
Although recounting what really happened, Harris’ account reads like a fictional court room thriller, complete with surprising twists in the plot.
But it is above all a story of four soldiers who stick to their ideals, despite the almost inescapable conviction of the death sentence.
But this is only one part of the whole narration, albeit the largest. Intermittedly as Harris (who was their lawyer at the time) attempts to keep his clients off death row, two other narratives unfold.
One is of a bomb being constructed by the Secret Police, and its journey to a high profile target of the apartheid government, a target known personally by those creating it.
The other is the background stories of our four freedom fighters. Where they came from and the situations that drove them to leave their country and join MK.
These stories are especially poignant, telling us what drove and motivated four ordinary men to become members of an assassination squad. As Masina says during the trial: “Maybe if things had been different we would be the ones wearing suits and carrying briefcases.”
This is an incredibly gripping and thought-provoking read. While talking about his book at a recent launch at the Law department at Rhodes University, Harris said he wrote the book in part in an attempt to “deal with the problem of collective amnesia”, and he hoped that readers would arrive at a clearer conception of our divided history. “A shared understanding of our past is crucial to our future,” he said.
