Exhibition captures inspiring life of Dulcie September
APART from when her name was splashed in the world’s newspapers after she had been assassinated by an apartheid agent 27 years ago, not many South Africans know about Dulcie September.
September, 52, was the ANC’s representative in France when she was shot five times from behind with a .22 calibre rifle, which had a silencer, on March 29, 1988 in front of the ANC office in Paris.
The Dulcie September Travelling Exhibition, commemorating her life, was launched with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport’s (DCAS) Oral History Framework Document by MEC Anroux Marais last week.
The exhibition runs at the Western Cape Archive and Records Management Service in Roeland Street until tomorrow.
It gives an insight into September’s life – through her family’s personal archives, police records, records from September’s Paris office and newspaper clippings.
September post-humously received South Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Luthuli, in 2009.
Born in Gleemore, Athlone, she received her teacher’s diploma from the Battswood (Teachers) Training School in Salt River in 1955.
She subsequently became involved in a students’ union and a militant study group before she was arrested in 1964 and tried for sabotage and subversion, and sentenced to five years in prison.
After her release, she left he country on an exit visa and headed for London, where she joined the ANC and its women’s league.
She was appointed ANC head of research in France, Switzerland and Luxembourg. In France, a school, a street and a square had been named after her in 1998.
The Athlone Civic Centre was renamed the Dulcie September Civic Centre in 2013.