” Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial . . . solemn insight into the events leading to the uprising in Soweto “”

“. . . display of courage shown by children in the face of police! “

“. . . a window into the recent dark history of South Africa and more specifically Soweto “

HECTOR PIETERSON MUSEUM AND MEMORIAL

The Hector Pieterson Museum, and the adjacent Hector Pieterson Memorial in Khumalo Street, Soweto, opened on the 16th June 2002, a few hundred meters from the spot where the 12 year old child was thought to have been the second school pupil gunned down by police on 16th June, 1976 – but the first to die!

The Hector Pieterson Museum, resembles an interpretive centre, and is dedicated to the events that led up to, and includes, the 16th June 1976 students uprising.
It’s basically a museum to a ‘day-in-the-life-of-South-Africa’.
A day that radically changed the manner in which South Africa was governed and a day that radically changed the course of South Africa’s history.

I first visited the Hector Pieterson Museum in 1998, in what was then a temporary museum, built in 1996 out of shipping cargo containers.

BANTU EDUCATION ACT of 1953

To understand the Soweto student uprising, it’s important to look at the Bantu Education Act of 1953. This law allowed the Nationalist Government to enforce its apartheid policies across all levels of education.
It began with schools and later extended to universities that were specifically for Black students.

At the time, many rural children were educated in church-run missionary schools, which were often very good. However, most of these schools were forced to close when the government withdrew their funding.

All Black education then came under the direct control of the apartheid government. The curriculum was created by the state and aligned with the views of Hendrik Verwoerd, the Minister of Native Affairs, who said, “…there is no place for (the Bantu) in the European community, above the level of certain forms of labour…”

AFRIKAANS MEDIAN DECREE

The government responded to pressure from businesses to improve the Bantu Education system in 1972.
To help educate a better-trained black workforce, 40 new schools were built in Soweto.

In 1974, South Africa introduced the Afrikaans Medium Decree, requiring all black schools to teach in both English and Afrikaans.
Afrikaans was used for subjects like mathematics, arithmetic, and social studies, while English was used for general science and practical subjects.

Being taught in Afrikaans, would only be implemented in the student’s final six years (Std. 5 to Matric) at school.
While English had already been accepted as a teaching language, there was strong opposition to Afrikaans.
Many saw Afrikaans as the language of the “oppressor.”

By 1976, there had been a huge increase in student numbers (three-fold to 34,000), and one in five children in Soweto attended secondary school.

SIGNS OF UNREST

On April 30th, 1976, the first signs of resentment appeared. Students at Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike and refused to attend classes. This quickly spread to other schools.

On June 13th, 1976, a student from Morris Isaacson High School, *Teboho ‘Tsietsi’ Mashinini, proposed a meeting to find a solution. Mashinini was popular and smart, serving as the captain of the debating team and president of the Methodist Youth Guild.
(*Mashinini later died mysteriously in exile, but was eventually exhumed and buried in Soweto’s Avalon Cemetery.)

As a result of the meeting, an Action Committee was formed, which later became the Soweto Students’ Representative Council. The committee called for a march on June 16th. Students from all over Soweto were to march towards Orlando West Junior School in solidarity with those on strike. The plan was for the leaders to address the students and then peacefully end the protest.

WEDNESDAY 16th JUNE 1976

The cause for the uprising was the poor quality of Bantu Education, although the entire apartheid system was the root of any protest.

On Wednesday, June 16th, 1976, students were supposed to start writing exams.
Instead, an estimated 15,000 took to the streets in different parts of Soweto.

One group of students faced the police at the corner of Moema and Vilakazi Streets, outside Orlando West High School.
The police were unprepared and poorly equipped to handle the marchers.
Rocks were thrown at the police, who responded with tear gas and fired several warning shots.

Before the children could disperse, the police opened fire.

SAM NZIMA PHOTOGRAPH

Sam Nzima, a photographer for The World newspaper in Johannesburg, was taking photos of the events. (The World newspaper was banned and shut down by Minister of Justice Jimmy Kruger in 1977). Nzima captured the iconic photo of *Mbuyisa Makhubo, an 18-year-old student, carrying Hector Pieterson’s body.

Pieterson’s sister, 17-year-old Antoinette, was running alongside, traumatized. Makhubo carried Pieterson to Sam Nzima’s car, and he was driven to the Phefeni Clinic, where he was pronounced dead.

(*Makhubo was harassed by the police after the incident and fled into exile in Botswana. He later went to Nigeria, where he was last heard from before disappearing without a trace.)

NATIONAL YOUTH DAY

16th June 1976 is commemorated as a public holiday – National Youth Day, to honour all young people.

Nelson Mandela, when released from prison in 1990, acknowledged the debt owed by all black South Africans to the students who gave their lives in Soweto.

HASTINGS NDLOVU

Hastings Ndlovu, who was three years older than Hector Pieterson, is believed to have been the first child shot by the police.
This happened in a separate incident, 600 meters away on the old Orlando West bridge on Kumalo Main Road.
He died later that day from his injuries at Baragwanath Hospital (now called Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital).

The photo below shows the neglected outdoor memorial for Hastings Ndlovu, which includes his statue.
The site has since become overgrown and abandoned, and the statue was removed for safekeeping after being damaged and desecrated.

Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial does not have a website