‘Passing of Tata Wallace Mgoqi, cause to reflect on how poorly we have treated good leaders’

Tshego Motaung pays tribute to the memory of Dr Wallace Mgoqi, an advocate, thinker, social activist and champion of the poor, who passed away earlier this week. A former city manager of Cape Town and former chief land claims commissioner –among many positions he held — he was chairman of the board of AYO Technology Solutions at the time of his death at the age of 73.

There is an evil I have seen under the sun, As an error proceeding from the ruler: Folly is set in great dignity, While the rich sit in a lowly place. I have seen servants on horses, While princes walk on the ground like servants. — Ecclesiastes 10:5-6

I walked into the Mgoqi home to attend a prayer meeting without know anything about who they were. I was a new mother, living away from my own family with a demanding job and faced with all those pressures, I knew I needed to find God, and in the process I was blessed with a family.

The prayer meeting was held every Saturday, and those drives to Durbanville became the highlight of my week. I was rediscovering the Word, prayer and what it means to be a Christian, despite having been one all my life.

My work exposed me to interesting dynamics of the politics of leadership in the City of Cape Town and Western Cape, but in the Mgoqi home I felt safe, and hidden away. This was before I knew that Tata Mgoqi was once the city manager.  

This discovery opened up a new relationship for me, with someone who could relate to the challenges I faced at work. He would help me to understand the complexity of some dynamics that were playing out in the city, and my own predicament through working for a foreign government. After sharing his thoughts, he would encourage me and send me off with a word of prayer.

Tata had many stories to tell about his journey that often sounded like what Xhosa’s call iintsomi — tales that express the creativity of the story teller but are not real.

His story of how he lost his job as the Cape Town’s City Manager was among those that sounded most unbelievable, yet it was all true. He would laugh as he recalled some of the details of that painful process, because despite the enemy’s plan to destroy him, the process transformed his life completely.  

He become the city manager of Cape Town, early in our democracy under the ANC. Unfortunately for Tata, when the DA won the Western Cape election on April 10 2006, they resolved to terminate his employment. He was perceived to be a threat to the predominantly White-led DA because he was suspected of being aligned with the ANC, despite not being a member. But he was also suspect because he sought to transform the lives of Black people who had suffered injustices in the apartheid era.

This threw Tata into a political wilderness, that many find themselves in when they fall out with their political principals. Despite being accused of being biased towards the ruling party, they [the ANC] sadly didn’t come to his rescue.

He didn’t take his dismissal lying down, but began a legal battle against the City of Cape Town with all odds against him. The Western Cape High Court dominated by white judges dismissed his case. He took it to the  Appeals Court in Bloemfontein, where Judge President Howie had appointed two white judges to hear his appeal. They dismissed his appeal on papers without even giving him a hearing. This time the case was dismissed with costs – meaning he had to pay the City of Cape Town’s legal costs. Despite being convinced of the merits of his case, he gave up the fight that had already depleted his resources.

A German Pastor, Martin Niemöller once said: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out —because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.” 

This is true in our nation. When Tata Mgoqi was dismissed by the DA, many looked the other way because he was not a member of their party,  and he was left to fend for himself. 

It is unfortunate that this culture of sacrificing hardworking, ethical professionals who don’t toe the party line has become so rampant in our nation. And many lives have been destroyed in the process.

He later tried opening a legal practice focusing on civil matters, but the practice didn’t do well. Criminal cases were more lucrative than civil matters but this was not what he wanted to do. He was eventually sequestrated and his cars got repossessed. By God’s grace his house was spared when the Western Cape Women’s Investment Forum stepped up and bought the property, which allowed him and his family to stay there until things settled down.

It was in a process of darkness and being at rock bottom that his life was transformed. Despite experiencing loss and humiliation, Tata Mgoqi remained a man of dignity.  He had found his identity in Christ, and having lost it all He found what matters the most, the Kingdom that cannot be shaken. It was because of this that his family was full of love, generous and always supportive. It was hard to believe that people who had no income were always willing to share what they had, including their own lives.

Having grown up without a father, Tata was a blessing to me and my daughter, but this would not have been possible without his wife – Mam Dolly, the pillar who held it all together. In his book, The Benefit of Hindsight — a Gift from Above,  Tata says if we think he is a hero, she is more than a hero. If we look at him and think he has conquered, she is more than a conqueror.   

He was obviously not a perfect man. In that process of darkness he began to write books and he expressed regrets from his youth and acknowledged the many mistakes he made. He then committed his life to helping others overcome, especially where he had failed.

I believe as we lay this giant to rest, we need to reflect as a country on how we have treated good leaders in our nation — especially now at the time of Passover when we remember how a whole community crucified an innocent man, while Barnabas, was acquitted of all his criminal charges.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. –Matthew 23:37

We have become a nation that rejects truth. We crucify and muzzle transformation leaders and acquit those who are corrupt. The Sunday Times front page story on January 29 covered a story of the woman who blew the whistle on the corruption that was taking place at Daybreak Farms. After her two years of suffering she said she now regrets exposing the corruption. 

A hardworking professional who just wanted to do the right thing has been reduced to rags, leaving her children suffering in the process, while the corrupt ones continue their lives happily. I asked myself what kind of a society have we become when people begin to believe that it is better to be silent in the face of injustice and corruption.

Tata had many dreams that never materialised, many hopes that were dashed and desires that were never fulfilled, and all these involved seeing the lives of many improved. He was passionate about land and shared his thoughts on how rural women could be empowered through land – a concept he coined “One Woman, One Hectare”.  I am grateful that he documented most of them.

Like many parents and leaders he also suffered some disappointments from those he tried to help. But I guess it is better I talk of my own sins, rather than other people’s.

I remember how I nearly caused Tata a heart attack before time when I poured petrol into his diesel car during his wilderness time. He later confessed how mad he was; he said :“If it wasn’t because of my wife, a woman of faith, I don’t know what I would have done.”  We owe a great debt to Mam Dolly for everything she has done, we were spared Tata’s wrath because of her.

Later on in my life, as I was agonising about losses I had suffered and doors of opportunities slammed in my face, I would remember Tata, a highly educated leader who often found himself without work and income, while incompetent and corrupt people rose to positions of power. And yet he kept moving forward, trusting in the Lord to meet his needs.

Tata is one of the heroes of our time, who stood for the truth and suffered as a result but remained gracious to the end. However, things cannot remain this way in our nation, where  princes walk as slaves,  and folly sits in great dignity.

I am comforted by a dream my daughter had in 2021. She woke up one morning screaming: “I had a dream of Suna Gogo (Mam Dolly) and Grandpa. They were sitting on big chairs of gold, with crowns of gold and everywhere was gold and beautiful.” We phoned Suna Gogo and shared the dream of the reward that awaits those who have stored up treasures in Heaven.

It’s a reminder that death is not the end — and because we sometimes, as adults, struggle to hear the voice of God, He then speakS through the lips of little children. This is confirmed by the words of Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy4:7-8 — I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.  

May the Lord bring comfort to Mam Dolly, his wife and friend of many years and the rest of the family. 

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