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I first saw this film in a packed cinema in Harare in 1993. As the only white in the audience I almost felt I needed to apologise - until friends insisted that not all whites they knew were like that. (I still like the "Not all whites" phrase)

Cast  Panic - Thomas Mogotlane (he also co-wrote the film)
         Stander - Marcel Van Heerden

Storyline

Mapantsula, filmed inside Soweto, and offering an excellent introduction to township life, was the first anti-apartheid feature film by, for and about black South Africans. Supposedly it was filmed (under censorship, as was common at the time) as a crime movie, but when the censors were away, it became the current film. Mapantsula is essentially the story of `Panic` (Mogotlane), a petty gangster who, having spent most of his life in prison, becomes involved in the growing anti-apartheid struggle; he then has to choose between his individual gain and a united stand against the system. Alongside runs the theme of how women are oppressed in their struggles to simply make a daily living while keeping their white employers happy and away from the perception that they are bringing their troubles into the white's homes.