It tells the story of Johannes 'Panic' Themba Mzolo (Mogotlane), a small-time thief, set against the backdrop of Apartheid.
The film's use of flashbacks between Panic's time at the hands of his apartheid jailor 'Stander' (Marcel Van Heerden) and happenings in the Johannesburg township of Soweto display the injustices black South Africans suffered during apartheid and their struggle for suffrage.
The film makes extensive use of political rallies, police brutality, and racial difference to example the effects of apartheid on black South Africans.
[3] Mapantsula begins with cut-scenes between a heated protest and several police vehicles transporting apprehended black South Africans.
There is a voice in the background saying that they have violated the Internal Security Act by gathering without permission and inciting a riot.
There is a cut-scene to a busy Johannesburg street where Panic and his partner in crime, Dingaan (Darlington Michaels), rob a white South African of his wallet, threatening him with a knife when he attempts to get his money back.
Panic then makes his way home to the Soweto township where he rents a small, one-room house from a landlady he refers to as Ma Mobise (Dolly Rathebe).
She is a housemaid to a white South African woman, Joyce (Margaret Michaels).
In another flashback, Panic is trailing an obviously rich woman on the street, eyeing her handbag.
He meets up with Dingaan and Pat in a bar, and recounts that he tripped up the thief and the woman rewarded him.
He is angry about Panic getting out of jail on an earlier occasion, accusing him of selling out to the authorities.
The next morning, Ma Mobise wakes up a hung over Panic and demands he pay rent.
After telling him to stay out of trouble, Sam runs from an approaching police van.
Pat, meanwhile, meets with Duma, who urges her to return to Joyce and demand payment for benefits she was denied and the last week's wages.
In another cut scene, we see Panic at a local healer's, she tells him that, "…the past and future are for dreaming about.
Back at the police station, Panic is being humiliated by Stander, crouching naked in a locker room after insisting he does not know Duma.
Through a quick series of flashbacks, we realize that this is a riot protesting Sam's death.
The word "ouen" is a local term meaning streetwise men, those often concerned with the wellbeing of their community and not just themselves, setting them apart from amapantsula.
Mapantsula heavily criticizes apartheid, showing how many different black South Africans, some law-abiding citizens, others criminals, are unjustly affected by the institutionalized policy of racism.
The inevitability of the conflict around him forces Panic to make a decision between personal gain (by confessing Duma is a terrorist to the police and being released) and helping the larger social movement by staying silent about Duma's whereabouts.
[5] Even though Panic inadvertently helps the police, the very force he's always fought against, he refuses to continue being selfish after Sam's death and Ma Mobisa's murder right in front of him.
There is no system of justice in Mapantsula, the authorities are instead more interested in the status-quo that true order in a democratic nation.
The mayor of Sowato is not elected by the people he supposedly represents and is accused of pocketing the money he gets from raising the rents.
The pickpocketing Panic commits is common in South Africa and difficult for the police to investigate.
His musings on robbing Joyce also represent the fact that the majority of thefts in South Africa occur out of opportunity and not vengeance or racial discrimination.