The Harvest Of My Times

In the first week of May 1977, South Africans woke up to a strangest tale of a bank robbery in the town of Krugersdorp, north-west of Johannesburg: a bank was robbed in the most unusual fashion as there was no break-in reported, but yet the bank vault was almost empty. As the week wore on it was discovered that the bank vault was accessed from an underground tunnel dug from the neighbouring building, which was rented by the thieves. The whole world reported the robbery as the first of its kind. The robbers left no clue behind to lead the police in their investigations, or so the world was told.In the same week, in the remote village of Ga-Monare, in the Northern Province of the country, villagers woke up to loads of mint coins dumped along the river bank in two huge safes. They have never seen such quantity of money before and alerted the school principal of a primary school in the neighbouring village of Ga-Rapadi. The principal brought along his thirteen year old son, Markz, to the scene.Forty two years down the line, Markz decided to tell this story, his story. Using elements of fiction to recreate the gang which robbed the bank and its modus operandi, he also tells the story about his growing up in the rural parts of the Northern Transvaal. His early years in the 1970s were marked by turmoil as he tried to give and make meaning to life, from going to elementary school to the racial laws which determined who could live where; attend school where or marry who. The South Africa he grew up in was also a troubled land; shunned by the rest of world for its segregation policies called apartheid, Markz soon learnt the ugly face of power exercised by the White men on factory floors when he applied for an apprenticeship at the state arms manufacturer. His experiences were to be a roller coaster ride of disappointments; dogging his attempts at skill acquisition and a better life. Abuse of power by government reduced Black people in his country to a subservient beggar status but he, like many others, refused to conform, to bend. His pride was to cost him every opportunity of learning a skill, driving him to near alcoholism, with little hope of bouncing back.His redemption came from an unlikely place, and with his hope and ambition rekindled, he went back to the factory floor. The country was still on a downward trend, with the economy haemorrhaging from continual strikes, disinvestment and general sombre outlook.Trying to establish himself in the world of work proved as difficult and he abandoned the dreams he pursued for so long.He thereafter trained as an educator, putting behind all the hurts he had endured and started work under another repressive regime, an enclave of the country, given the "independent" status by the central government in Pretoria. The country was called Bophuthatswana.This is the story of power, greed, pain, courage, determination and redemption!The book has a setting of the era up to 1988 and should be read and critiqued as such.

• | Author: Malose Godfrey Nyatlo
• | Publisher: Independently published
• | Publication Date: December 29, 2019
• | Number of Pages: 136 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 1713164728
• | ISBN-13: 9781713164722