Towards the end of 1970, I increased the frequency of my clandestine trips to the South. I had hatched a plan to return and my resolve to do so was unstoppable. After a series of meetings with the Pietersburg District Magistrate, I was finally granted a conditional permit to return home and this received a stamp of approval from the Security Police. With great relief, I began my move and aggressively applied for a real job in Johannesburg.

I went back and scrounged on Sy's place and his wife Paulina and the kids made sure that I lived comfortably while I was job hunting. I eventually accepted a position as a stores cadex clerk at an auto dealership in Germiston owned by the Ephron brothers, a well-known Jewish family in Johannesburg. While I enjoyed the assignment, I resented the harsh treatment the black employees of that firm received from some of the managers. Meanwhile, the job was paying me well and I had made good friends with young Phillip Ephron. The son of the eldest of the brothers, Phillip was a liberal chap who in his youth saw through the fallacy of racial domination. His liberated mind made it possible to later make friends and business partnerships across the racial divide of the country. His intervention gave me an opportunity to find my feet and take a new view on life.

Meanwhile, I kept the house in Seshego because the Polokwane authorities had made it very clear that, like all Black people, my sojourn to Johannesburg was temporary. I would have to return to my ‘homeland’ of Lebowa sometime in the future. At month ends, I travelled to Seshego to check on my siblings, and to give them money for miscellaneous expenses and groceries. By then, I had obtained temporary accommodation in Katlehong Township so as to be close to my place of employment.

By this time, my good friend Baker had moved to Attridgeville, near Pretoria and, occasionally, I would pay him a visit. On one of those late Sunday afternoons on my way back home, I waited at the Pretoria Station for the train heading for Johannesburg. From across the platform, I spotted a beautiful young woman standing by herself, clutching her handbag tightly. She had a flawless mocha, creamy complexion accentuated by two beauty spots on her left cheek and upper lip.