Struggle icon shares her story
It’s been 48 years since journalist, Sam Nzima, captured the image of dying school boy, Hector Peterson, in Soweto on June 16, but the photograph’s power has not diminished.
Running next to Mbuyisa Makhubu, who scooped the wounded 12-year-old up off the ground and tried to get him medical help, is his 16-year-old sister, Antoinette Sithole.
She had seen him alive and well just minutes before he was shot during the student uprising.
Speaking in Hilton on Friday last week, Sithole recalled seeing Hector on the opposite side of a street where she had gone to hide from the security forces.
Using his tribal name, Zondi, she called to him and beckoned him to come to her. Like many of the younger children caught up in the events of June 16, he wasn’t supposed to be there.
The high school students had kept their decision to protest the
apartheid government’s decision to impose Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in township schools a secret from parents and younger siblings.
When, however, the younger children heard the noise of the thousands of pupils marching and reciting the poem, Nkosi Sikelele iafrica, they wanted to join in.
“I told him I would make sure we got home safely … that we would be okay. I was just saying that [because] I was trying to be brave and bold. I was very scared,” Sithole said.
“Then there was another shot and we had to go back into hiding. Unfortunately we went in two separate ways. When it was calm, I looked but he was nowhere to be seen.”
Sithole noticed a commotion a short distance away but she didn’t want to leave where she was in case Hector returned. It was only after Makhubu picked him up that she spotted her brother’s shoes and she ran towards him.
Sadly, Hector died before he could get the help he needed at the nearby Phefeni clinic.
Sitting in the audience it was poignant to see Sithole, who is tiny and charismatic, share her story with pupils from St Anne’s Diocesan College, Pietermaritzburg Girls High School and Grace College – teenagers who were roughly the same age as her when her brother was shot.
She revealed that it took a long time for her to be able to confront the image, which became a symbol of apartheid repression.
“At first I couldn’t look at the picture. It used to break me in pieces,’ she said, adding that being able to distance herself from the brutal reality of the image had helped her to view it without anger and hatred.
Another thing which helped her to come to terms with her loss was being able to share the story at the Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) hearings.
“I told my story and afterward I felt like I was able to take my life back,” Sithole said. “I forgive all those who killed my brothers and sisters. Forgiveness is like taking the toxin out of the wound ... and by forgiving we allow our ancestors to rest in peace.”
Sithole also told the pupils that the struggles of the older generation had helped to open doors for young people in South Africa today.
“It is now for you, the youth, to move through the doors we opened. You are the future leaders. Our future lies with you,” she added.