CHRISTOPHER TRUTER was an “inquisitive” pupil, and for that he paid the ultimate price.
At the age of 15, the Bonteheuwel boy who dreamt of becoming a lawyer was shot in the head a stone’s throw from his family home. He had joined a large group of students who gathered outside Arcadia Primary School in 1976.
His killing came less than two weeks after 17-year-old Xolile Mosie was gunned down in the neighbouring Langa township. Truter, just like Mosie, was among a large group of students rising up against the apartheid regime and in solidarity with the Soweto pupils.
Although Truter did not initially know what the gathering was mainly intended for, he was curious, and joined in.
Truter’s older sister Sarah Valerie Peterson, then 20, was asked to accompany her brother to the hospital. She recalls how he lay helplessly on the ground waiting for an ambulance which arrived about an hour and a half later.
“I had a problem with my leg, and was on my way to the hospital when I was informed that someone had been shot. I asked where Christopher was because he had his uniform on.
“And they said they didn’t know where he was. As I was walking, someone said Christopher had been shot and I went to look, but the police blocked me until I told them I was his sister,” she said. She was not sure if it was her brother on the ground until she got closer.
“He was laying between Arcadia Primary and Arcadia High School. My mother was working at the hospital. They shot him at the back of his head. His brain splatters were all over his school top,” she said.
Her older brother, who was called to the scene, was arrested after saying that if he had a gun, he would have killed the police officers at the scene.
“We arrived at the hospital and we were told that he had been thrown with a brick, but we knew he was shot. We know the policemen who shot him.”
Truter was in hospital for four days before his family was informed that the life support machines would be switched-off on September 1 that year.
“The policeman had apologised for what he did, but my mother had wanted nothing to do with his apology. The policeman who shot him passed on. We forgive, but will never forget.”
Truter’s niece Carmelita, who was five years old at the time, said her uncle’s legacy did not exist. “Had he been alive, he was going to be one of those people who were at the forefront. There are a lot of people who don’t know about him. There is nothing that suggests he was among the people who sacrificed their lives in the Western Cape.”
She added that said she was reminded of her uncle’s death every time she drove past the spot where Truter was shot.
“I remember he loved delivering newspapers. I was very close to him. It feels like he is forgotten. It’s like what happened does not mean anything to anyone.”