We meet Aaron Mahlangu at the General and Allied Workers Union (Gawu) offices in Chancellor House, downtown Johannesburg. Outside on the pavements things are shifting, knots of lunch-time workers and the smell of deep fries from the quick take-away joints. This is downtown Jo’burg. As we drive along these streets Mahlangu points out landmarks. “That over there, see, it's the old Mayibuye School.” With his ongoing commentary we never do get to find out what, precisely, the Mayibuye School was.

Aaron Mahlangu is a tall man, a Sactu stalwart in his time, and one of the final thirty in the notorious Treason Trial. An organiser to his fingertips, it is hard to get Mahlangu to talk specifically about the Congress of the People campaign. He displays, rather, a lively interest in present-day campaigns. This ongoing interest has earned Mahlangu the fruits of a lifetime in the struggle – in short, he is flat broke. He seldom knows where tomorrow's bus fare is coming from.

Never mind, the struggle continues. “Ja, I’m too good at organising, man. All my life the bosses have been dismissing me from jobs.”

Q: Could we speak a little about the Congress of the People campaign?

Mahlangu: Sure. You’re calling the tune. From now on I’ll only talk about the Congress of the People campaign!

Mahlangu's main activity in collecting demands was on the workers’ front.

Mahlangu: I was a volontiya. We were collecting demands in a manner which we afterwards called the M-plan. From each and every factory we had to collect. We used to establish factory contacts. You call these contacts, regionally and provincially.

During lunch hours they discussed this [the Congress of the People] and after their discussion they say: “Now let's sit down and put our demands”.

Q: Were the demands all as expected?

Mahlangu: Some not. We didn't really expect that workers in factories would say that courts of law should be as impartial as ever. Many of that sort. Each one comes with opinion.