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| INFAMOUS IMAGE Iconic photo of the Soweto Youth Uprising: Photographer Sam Nzima |
The day apartheid police opened fire on protesting black
school children in Soweto on June 16, 1976 will be commemorated in South Africa
on Wednesday.
Observed as a public
holiday, it recalls the day police shot at children marching in Orlando West to
protest over Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in the then government's
''Bantu education'' system.
Photographer Sam Nzima (full name
Masana Samuel Nzima)
managed to
capture the photograph of 17-year-old Antoinette Sithole running next to
Mbuyisa Makhubu carrying Hector Pieterson, who, with Hastings Ndlovu, were
among the first to die as police cracked down on any resistance by black people
to laws which gave whites rights that other races were denied.
News24 reports:
In 1996, Sithole
testified at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on events of the day. ''When we arrived at
Pafeneng there was confusion. There were police. They threw us with tear gas.
We ran away and we hid ourselves,'' according to a transcript of her testimony.
''There was a gun sound.
There was teargas and there was confusion. I saw people hiding themselves and
then I hid myself too. While we were standing there I then - I was afraid
because I didn't know where Hector has gone to and people were holding
something. And then I moved forward and I could not see properly, and I saw
Hector's shoe.''
They were helped to a
clinic by journalists, but Pieterson was already dead.
In the days that
followed, government buildings were torched, police were stoned, and many black
school pupils and political activists abandoned their lives and families in
South Africa and left the country to escape the police crackdown, and to build
a resistance against apartheid from neighbouring countries.
Wednesday's
commemorations will include an address by President Jacob Zuma at the Tshwane
Events Centre, an Economic Freedom Fighters rally at the University of Limpopo
to be addressed by Julius Malema, and a rally addressed by Inkatha Freedom
Party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane
will be at the university in Nelson Mandela Bay for the party's rally.
Youth Uprising History In Brief
The June 16 1976 Uprising
that began in Soweto and spread countrywide profoundly changed the socio-political
landscape in South Africa. Events that triggered the uprising can be traced
back to policies of the Apartheid government that resulted in the introduction
of the Bantu Education Act in 1953. The rise of the Black Consciousness
Movement (BCM) and the formation of South African Students Organization (SASO)
raised the political consciousness of many students while others joined the
wave of anti-Apartheid sentiment within the student community. When the
language of Afrikaans alongside English was made compulsory as a medium of
instruction in schools in 1974, black students began mobilizing themselves. On
16 June 1976 between 3000 and 10 000 students mobilized by the South African
Students Movement's Action Committee supported by the BCM marched peacefully to
demonstrate and protest against the government’s directive. The march was meant
to culminate at a rally in Orlando Stadium.
On their pathway they
were met by heavily armed police who fired teargas and later live ammunition on
demonstrating students. This resulted in a widespread revolt that turned into
an uprising against the government. While the uprising began in Soweto, it
spread across the country and carried on until the following year.
The aftermath of the events
of June 16 1976 had dire consequences for the Apartheid government. Images of
the police firing on peacefully demonstrating students led an international
revulsion against South Africa as its brutality was exposed. Meanwhile, the
weakened and exiled liberation movements received new recruits fleeing
political persecution at home giving impetus to the struggle against Apartheid.
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