Overview

Overview
From doing odd jobs in KwaZulu-Natal to the most powerful king of the South African underworld, the name Nongoloza conjures images of both noble rebellion and vicious crime. It all started with a horse back in 1886 - a horse that went missing and had to be found or paid for by somebody. That somebody was Nongoloza, and he felt he was being treated badly, so badly that he moved from KwaZulu-Natal to Johannesburg, where he started his career as a crime king. "On informing my master of this [the missing horse] he accused me of being negligent and blamed me for it and told me to go and look for it," recounted Nongoloza in a statement many years later. "I told him that as I was working in the garden on that day he could not hold me responsible for the loss, as all the horses were out grazing alone." Nongoloza described how his "master" threatened to put him jail if he didn't go and look for the horse, so he went and looked but did not find the horse. "He [Tom J] then told me to go back to my kraal and work for Mr Tom P again, and added that Tom P would then bring to him the value of the horse that was lost. This amount would represent my wages for about two years." It was this act that set Nongoloza on a very different path from the one he might have taken as "houseboy" or horse groom or gardener, jobs he was doing when the horse went astray. Nongoloza, a powerful personality, became more famous and enduring than he would ever have imagined, and his legacy lives on more than 140 years later, particularly in the prisons of the Western Cape. He resisted becoming part of the labour-repressive institutions of a rapidly industrialising Johannesburg, like mine compounds, pass laws and prisons, that greeted blacks who were pushed off the land and forced to sell their labour in the towns. Nongoloza, or Mzuzephi Mathebula, was born in Zululand in 1867 into a family of three boys and two girls. His name, Mzuzephi, means "Where did you find him?" records Charles van Onselen in The small matter of a horse - the life of 'Nongoloza' Mathebula, 1867-1948. His father soon moved the family to live on a farm near Bergville in KwaZulu-Natal, close to where the Tugela River flows out of the Drakensberg mountains. He grew up herding his father's cattle and living a solitary existence, not being close to his siblings or his father, who was often away from home. At the age of 16 he got a job as a gardener in Harrismith, some 50 kilometres to the north. He also trained and worked as a groom in the Free State town, receiving a gift of a horse in "part payment for his conscientious labour". In 1886, at the age of 19, Mzuzephi went to work for Tom J again, not as a gardener as he had done previously but now principally as a groom. It's at this point that the horse went astray, and Mzuzephi was sent to find it. He went back to work for Tom P, as he was told to do, and was sent to Johannesburg, transporting sugar and flour to the town and returning with empty wagons. He was obviously mulling over his situation - on his return he approached his brother, asking his advice. "On returning I asked my brother whether it was the law, and whether he thought it fair that I should work and have my wages kept back to pay for the horse which I did not lose," he wrote in his statement. "He told me that I must work or they would put me in gaol and added that he did not want to see me there." Mzuzephi's deep sense of injustice at his punishment is evident. "I told him that I would not work to pay for what I did not lose and that when I was sent to Johannesburg again I would remain there." This he duly did, finding work in Jeppe as a "houseboy". He sent home money to his mother with men who lived near his homestead. One of his brothers turned up in Joburg and pressured him to return home to resolve the problem as the family was still dependent on the goodwill of Tom P, on whose farm they lived in return for giving him their labour. Mzuzephi was reluctant to do this, and resolved to do the only thing open to him under the circumstances: cut all ties with his family. He dropped his job and took on a new name: Jan Note. The name appears to be a combination of Afrikaans and English words, but, says Van Onselen, "unotha" refers to "native hemp, cannabis, satwa of the best quality", a reference to a dependency that Mzuzephi had developed as a young herdboy.

From doing odd jobs in KwaZulu-Natal to the most powerful king of the South African underworld, the name Nongoloza conjures images of both noble rebellion and vicious crime.

It all started with a horse back in 1886 - a horse that went missing and had to be found or paid for by somebody. That somebody was Nongoloza, and he felt he was being treated badly, so badly that he moved from KwaZulu-Natal to Johannesburg, where he started his career as a crime king.

"On informing my master of this [the missing horse] he accused me of being negligent and blamed me for it and told me to go and look for it," recounted Nongoloza in a statement many years later. "I told him that as I was working in the garden on that day he could not hold me responsible for the loss, as all the horses were out grazing alone."

Nongoloza described how his "master" threatened to put him jail if he didn't go and look for the horse, so he went and looked but did not find the horse.

"He [Tom J] then told me to go back to my kraal and work for Mr Tom P again, and added that Tom P would then bring to him the value of the horse that was lost. This amount would represent my wages for about two years."

It was this act that set Nongoloza on a very different path from the one he might have taken as "houseboy" or horse groom or gardener, jobs he was doing when the horse went astray.

Nongoloza, a powerful personality, became more famous and enduring than he would ever have imagined, and his legacy lives on more than 140 years later, particularly in the prisons of the Western Cape. He resisted becoming part of the labour-repressive institutions of a rapidly industrialising Johannesburg, like mine compounds, pass laws and prisons, that greeted blacks who were pushed off the land and forced to sell their labour in the towns.

Nongoloza, or Mzuzephi Mathebula, was born in Zululand in 1867 into a family of three boys and two girls. His name, Mzuzephi, means "Where did you find him?" records Charles van Onselen in The small matter of a horse - the life of 'Nongoloza' Mathebula, 1867-1948.

His father soon moved the family to live on a farm near Bergville in KwaZulu-Natal, close to where the Tugela River flows out of the Drakensberg mountains. He grew up herding his father's cattle and living a solitary existence, not being close to his siblings or his father, who was often away from home.

At the age of 16 he got a job as a gardener in Harrismith, some 50 kilometres to the north. He also trained and worked as a groom in the Free State town, receiving a gift of a horse in "part payment for his conscientious labour".

In 1886, at the age of 19, Mzuzephi went to work for Tom J again, not as a gardener as he had done previously but now principally as a groom. It's at this point that the horse went astray, and Mzuzephi was sent to find it.

He went back to work for Tom P, as he was told to do, and was sent to Johannesburg, transporting sugar and flour to the town and returning with empty wagons. He was obviously mulling over his situation - on his return he approached his brother, asking his advice.

"On returning I asked my brother whether it was the law, and whether he thought it fair that I should work and have my wages kept back to pay for the horse which I did not lose," he wrote in his statement. "He told me that I must work or they would put me in gaol and added that he did not want to see me there."

Mzuzephi's deep sense of injustice at his punishment is evident. "I told him that I would not work to pay for what I did not lose and that when I was sent to Johannesburg again I would remain there."

This he duly did, finding work in Jeppe as a "houseboy". He sent home money to his mother with men who lived near his homestead. One of his brothers turned up in Joburg and pressured him to return home to resolve the problem as the family was still dependent on the goodwill of Tom P, on whose farm they lived in return for giving him their labour.

Mzuzephi was reluctant to do this, and resolved to do the only thing open to him under the circumstances: cut all ties with his family.

He dropped his job and took on a new name: Jan Note. The name appears to be a combination of Afrikaans and English words, but, says Van Onselen, "unotha" refers to "native hemp, cannabis, satwa of the best quality", a reference to a dependency that Mzuzephi had developed as a young herdboy.