Tony Heard’s engrossing personal Kgosana piece is memory-evoking. 

At a Lady Selborne High School, Pretoria matric farewell ceremony in 1956 I was deeply impressed by headboy Philip Kgosana’s address showing great leadership qualities. I was 23, working on my PhD; Philip 20: a situation sadly still the norm. In 1960 he burst onto the public stage leading the massive march of people nearly twice his age in ill-fitting borrowed shoes to Caledon Square, Cape Town. 

In exile he dropped below my horizon but re-appeared in an article in The Star, 10 October 2016 tracked down to where he was living in Pretoria. With a contemporary friend I found Kgosana’s phone number. It was answered by his charming wife Alice. With my wife we met them on 28 December in their very gracious home in a far-flung north-western mixed suburb. The intended courtesy visit stretched into three-and-a-half hours ending with lunch on their unusual farm products.

Contd……