Sister’s agony over Hector’s death

Hector Pieterson's sister Antoinette Sithole shows where he was shot. Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu

Hector Pieterson's sister Antoinette Sithole shows where he was shot. Photo: Bongiwe Mchunu

Published Jun 16, 2011

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“Hector was shot dead before I could have the opportunity to whisk him home and save him from the raging bullets of the aggressive apartheid forces.”

These are the words of Hector Pieterson’s sister Antoinette Sithole, explaining how she had spotted her brother wandering the hostile streets and promised to take him home on June 16, 1976.

This was not going to be an easy task. All hell had broken loose and the apartheid forces’ sluice gates had been opened, releasing a belligerent incursion that rushed through Soweto.

Gunshots rang through the streets of Orlando West while a larger part of the township found itself under a ceiling of black smoke billowing from government properties set alight by students.

A thick cloud of tear gas, one of the state forces’ common crowd-control tactics, hung over the troubled township.

Then a Form 2 (Grade 9) student at Lobone Secondary School, Sithole, 17, found herself in this hostile situation.

Screaming as they disappeared into nearby properties and streets, protesters ran for cover whenever the first shot rang, and only came out of hiding a while after shooting had died down.

Sithole had just emerged from a yard at the corner of Moema and Phiri streets when she saw Hector, 12, wandering alone on the opposite street corner.

Scared for her younger brother’s safety, Sithole called him. Hector looked around and saw his sister waving to him.

“Young children like Hector were not supposed to be there… he knew he was in trouble. I promised him (I would) get us home and out of the looming danger.”

But a gunshot sent them running in opposite directions, with Sithole going to her old hiding spot. When she re-emerged, there was no sign of Hector.

“And then I saw Mbuyisa Makhubu running past me. I saw Mbuyisa was trying to lift something off the ground and then noticed Hector’s shoe and immediately realised it was my brother. I joined Mbuyisa running… towards the clinic with Hector in his arms.”

A monument on Sisulu Street marks the spot where photographer Sam Nzima took the world-famous picture of a dungaree-clad Makhubu carrying a lifeless Hector, wearing only one shoe and bleeding from the mouth. In the image Sithole, in her school uniform, runs frantically beside Makhubu.

Moments after arriving at Phefeni Clinic – today Mandela Sisulu Clinic – she learnt it was too late. He was declared dead on arrival. Two months later, Hector would have turned 13.

Sithole works at the Hector Pieterson Museum, built on a piece of ground that used to be a vacant area where cops were positioned during the protests.

Last week, on a walk down Moema Street, where her brother died, Sithole pointed out the changes in the area.

“A lot has been done in the area, not only in beautifying it but in an extensive effort to preserve the history,” she said.

Hector’s 68-year-old mother Dorothy Molefi and the rest of his family will take part in the June 16 remembrance. - The Star

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