Backlash over re-created Hector Pieterson pic
"As far as we are concerned that photo is heritage, that photo symbolises the struggles of 1976. You can't change it. If we change it. we are diluting history." This was the reaction of Oupa Moloto, who was involved in the historic Soweto revolt, to the re-creation by DSTV's Channel O of Sam Nzima's photograph of Mbuyisa Makhubu carrying the body of Hector Pieterson.To mark Youth Day, the picture, by Nganga Dlanga of the Black River FC advertising agency, replaced Pieterson's body with a graduation cap, robe and certificate, while Makhubu and Pieterson's sister, Antoinette Sithole, are smiling. The tagline reads: "Live the dream, the dream the youth of '76 died for."While the work was praised by some on social media, Moloto, project manager for the 1976 Foundation, took exception to what had been done to Makhubu because "we are not even sure if he is alive or not".Ali Hlongwane, deputy director for culture for the City of Johannesburg, said it "can be read as trivialising the loss of life"...
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