KALUSHI: The story of Solomon Mahlangu

By Mandla Dube

KALUSHI is a true story about a nineteen-year-old hawker, SOLOMON MAHLANGU from the streets of Mamelodi a ghetto township outside Pretoria in South Africa. He is brutally beaten by police. Kalushi goes into exile following the 1976 Soweto uprisings to join the liberation movement. He returns from military training in Angola en route to their mission, his friend and comrade, Mondy, loses control and shoots two innocent people on Goch Street in Johannesburg. Mondy is severely beaten & tortured; Kalushi is forced to stand trial under the common purpose doctrine. The state seeks the highest punishment from the court, DEATH by HANGING. Kalushi has his back against the wall and uses the courtroom as a final battlefield. His sacrifice immortalizes him into a hero of the struggle and an international icon of June 16,1976.