Down memory lane

Many people in Mitchell's Plain contributed to this struggle. Thousands attended rallies and engaged the apartheid police in street battles that resulted in scores injured and others dying.

- ALICIA ENGLISH MANSOOR JAFFER

In the suburbs of the Plain, activists organised the areas' residents into civic groups, trade unions, youth groups, student bodies, and progressive religious movements.

Johnny Issel, who became an MP in the first democratic provincial parliament, a nationally respected activist in the early days, lived in Rocklands.

Security police dragged him off in the middle of the night on several occasions.

Then there were Rocklands' Willie and Veronica Simmers, who became stalwarts of the civic movement and UDF and were key to the growth of these sectors in Mitchell's Plain.