Sam Nzima remembered
Benson Ntlemo
Legendary photo journalist Sam Nzima, who took the iconic picture of the injured Hector Peterson, generally regarded as the first victim of June 16 1976 upheavals will be remembered with two important events this week.
On Friday, the Sam Nzima Foundation in conjunction with the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism will host the inaugural Sam Nzima Memorial Lecture at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. The following day the Sam Nzima Foundation will host the Sam Nzima memorial service at Nkwinyamahembe in Mpumalanga at 11am. The foundation founded by him while he was still alive, to plough back to the community has done justice to the name of the iconic photographer who clicked the camera at the right time to capture a moment on history.
In the picture, Hector is being carried by Mbuyiso Makhubu to a Rand Daily Mail car to take him to hospital after being shot by the police. Running alongside them was Hector’s sister Antoinette. The picture has been widely used by publications the whole world to show the brutality of apartheid South Africa’s police, resulting in apartheid being declared a crime against humanity.
The photographer who took the picture has become a legendary figure. It is fitting that the family house in Nkwinya mahembe has been donated to the foundation to turn it into a museum.
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