At age eight, Panyaza Lesufi ducked and ran for his life when apartheid police randomly shot unarmed protesting students.
Over four decades on, President Cyril Ramaphosa has named Lesufi as the next premier of Gauteng, replacing David Makhura.
Then in 1976, around the young Lesufi more than 174 were killed during the deadly Soweto students uprising.
Bitter and angry, he vowed to fight the brutal apartheid system.
Born Andrek Lesufi, his family relocated to Tembisa after being moved from Dindela at Edenvale due to the Group Areas Act.
It was in Tembisa where he earned his nickname Panyaza – a name he got from playing soccer in the dusty soccer fields of Tembisa.
He did not think twice when he was persuaded by his childhood friend Kennedy Nkoane to join the ANC-aligned Congress of South African Students (Cosas) in the 1980s.
Forty-six years after the fateful 1976 uprising, Lesufi, now 54 years old, is set to lead Gauteng as its premier – a powerful province which is the country’s economic giant.
His steady rise in politics has not been without obstacles.
He was detained in 1989 at the Modderbee Prison when he was 21 years old for his political activities.
In 1995, he was arrested again for allegedly distributing higher education transformation agenda propaganda.
For his leadership, Lesufi was awarded the University of Natal’s Chief Albert Luthuli Award.
In 2014, he was elected as MEC for Education – a portfolio which pitted him with lobby groups such as AfriForum which, at times, accused Lesufi of being racist due to the policies he pushed for in government schools.
The civil rights organisation accused Lesufi of pushing the Basic Education Laws Amendment Bill to terminate Afrikaans schools.
Four years later in 2018, he was elected as ANC deputy chairperson of the ANC, a position he held until he was elected provincial chairperson in June this year.
His election as ANC provincial chairman cleared the path for him to become the premier of Gauteng.