By Chumisa Ndlazi
As South Africans gear-up to commemorate Freedom Month, I find myself reflecting on the legacy of Monde Tabata. He was not only a notable figure in rugby and corporate South Africa but, also a prominent student leader in the Eastern Cape during the 1980s. In my view, his life exemplified the essence of preserving and advancing democratic ideals by tirelessly advocating for justice, transformation, and the empowerment of the youth.
In fact, if left to one’s imagination, the song Flowers of the Nation by Jonas Gwangwa could easily be interpreted as an ode to unsung heroes like him.
Monde was born on 23 July 1960, in Cradock, a small town in the Eastern Cape historically known for producing literary legends, war heroes, and anti-Apartheid activists. It is therefore no coincidence that his life’s trajectory was marked by engagement in student politics, leveraging his astute business acumen to uplift disadvantaged communities, and advocating for the inclusion of black rugby players in the Springboks.
During the peak of the Apartheid regime in the 1980s, Tabata assumed the role of the first chairperson of the Black Students Movement and became a member of the South African Student Congress Organisation (Sasco) at Rhodes University, where he later earned his BA degree in Politics and Industrial Sociology.
As noted by Mputumi Damane, in an article titled: Rugby boss Tabata was a citizen of the world who wanted to put wrongs right; Tabata played an instrumental role in mobilising black students at Rhodes University to oppose the harsh conditions black and coloured students were subjected to on campus.
However, his father, Kholisile Boyce Tabata, a Director General of Education in the Ciskei, held reservations about his approach. Being an educationist by profession and at heart, he believed that organised protests disrupted education and hindered the progress of black children towards becoming productive members of society.
In an interview on Keith Ngesi Radio with Lester Madubela, dated 19 May 2019, Monde Tabata, while reflecting on his life as a student activist, recalled a visit he received from his father on campus after finding out that he was at the forefront of these organised protests.
“My father was so upset with me. I remember him paying me a visit on the 10 October 1983. He said, you know, Monde, I am getting security reports saying that schools in the Eastern Cape are unstable because of you. Meanwhile, you are getting an education at Rhodes; you have access to three meals a day. The children you are mobilising cannot even afford three meals. This is not only scandalous but also immoral,” he evoked.
Despite his father’s disapproval, driven by his convictions, Tabata persisted in his activism until his arrest in 1985 during a Congress of South African Students (Cosas) meeting with the then Cosas president, Lulu Johnson.
“Cosas had been banned, so Lulu Johnson called me to request that I join their meeting. The aim of this session was to discuss strategies on how to keep this student political organ alive during its banishment period.”
Hardly five minutes into the meeting, members of the Special Branch, who attended the meeting under the guise of being students, captured Tabata. His thesis titled: “The Freedom Charter as a Communication Document,” which was due for submission and weighed 40% of his final mark, was confiscated.
In the time that he was detained, he fell sick and, with the regime none the wiser, administered penicillin, which he had an allergic reaction to and almost killed him. This resulted in an even longer time in detention. He could only finish his BA degree in Politics and Industrial Sociology the following year.
Regardless of the numerous arrests and the tumultuous nature of politics during that period, he continued to champion the cause to advance black people. This passion was clear in his choices in his early career.
In 1993, he was part of the National Black Business Caucus Steering Committee which met with President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Kruger National Park for three days to discuss Black Economic Empowerment. Monde Tabata, Thabiso Buku and Bert Chanetsa successfully wrote the first submission to the African National Congress (ANC).
His dedication to seeing the African child succeed also extended to his thriving career in the corporate world. In 1996, while serving as an executive at Peermont, he founded Marang Trust, a Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiative established to develop the youth of the East Rand and drive bursary programmes for tertiary education.
Like his father, he was very passionate about education and its ability to refine one’s thinking. He would often say: “Education is the cornerstone of any nation worth its salt. A good education should teach one to think, prepare for economic challenges ahead and contextualise what it means to be a South African in South Africa and a South African in relation to the world.”
Important to note Tabata’s understanding of the significant role of education was not only limited to formal academic training. As a person who had extensive experience working in the Marketing and Communications industry, he also understood the power of media and storytelling in educating people.
“Media is a very important tool that contributes to the development of people and development, is about the mind. I often wonder, is it not time as South Africans to generate content that projects a narrative that reflects our aspirations?”
Reiterating this point, he further went on to say in his interview with Madubela on Keith Ngesi Radio: “The majority of African families work very hard. They sacrifice a lot to advance their children. That is the real black story. The real black story is not about drunkenness. It is about black parents who want their children to be better than them, and those are the stories we ought to tell and be proud of.”
I remember in 2020, when the story of two young black entrepreneurs in biotechnology (Dineo Lioma and Daniel Ndima) hit the news after their ground-breaking Covid-19 diagnostic kit innovation, he reached out to me saying: “The story behind those two bright young people has not hit the media yet. I do not want you to forget, as black people, we need the narrative that goes with their work.”
Like the role of formal education in shaping the mind, he believed that media is an apparatus that also has the power to educate. As a result, he always encouraged me in my science communication journey to use storytelling as a tool to educate and uplift the minds and hearts of black people.
Therefore, I know, without a doubt in my mind, that he would have been proud of the current rugby narrative that is being told through the Chasing the Sun docuseries – a story that captures the glorious and historical moments in South African sport and depicts how far we’ve come.
In the final years of his life, much like his father who was also a rugby administrator, Monde Tabata devoted himself to one of his greatest passions: rugby. Serving as an executive member of the South African Rugby Union (Saru) and excelling in his role as a rugby administrator, he became a key figure in Saru’s initiatives to revitalise struggling rugby unions in the Eastern Cape, earning him the moniker Mr Fix It within the rugby fraternity. He equally worked tirelessly to establish a structured framework for nurturing a formidable pipeline of black and coloured rugby players to secure their inclusion in the rugby national team.
After South Africa won the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Tabata highlighted in an interview with Busisiwe Jemsana-Mantashe on SABC (9 November 2019): “We need to isolate the Eastern Cape as the major source of the pipeline, and we must focus on the black and coloured players. This, of course is not to the exclusion of other players. Investment should go towards improving rugby fields, conditioning, nutrition, and proper academies.”
Before succumbing to COVID-19-related complications in September 2020, he was working on a book about the history of Black rugby in South Africa with the objective of preserving and celebrating the contribution of the Black South African Rugby community. The book has not been published yet.
As highlighted by Damane in a tributary article to Tabata, he was also working on a group insurance scheme for former black Springboks in the Eastern Cape region.
Of course, this barely scratches the surface of Monde Tabata’s character and contributions. However, when pondering the essence of leadership in South Africa, one instinctively gravitates towards figures who held the same values as him – individuals who have made it their mission to empower, safeguard, and uplift the dignity of the African child.
