(Accepting his award, Sam
Nzima shares a moment with Professor Pitika Ntuli)
The Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) named Sam Nzima the
winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Art. Sam Nzima was born in
Lilydale, Mpumalanga in 1934 and is a veteran photographer who took the
infamous picture of a fatally wounded Hector Pieterson on June 16, 1976, during
the Soweto uprisings.
During school holidays, he would go to the Kruger Park and
charge people to get their photographs taken. He later moved to Johannesburg to
seek work and it was here where he read The Rand Daily Mail newspaper, which
sparked his interest in photojournalism. While travelling, he wrote a story
about taking the bus and sent it with photographs to The World, an African
daily newspaper.
The editor of The World was interested in Nzima’s work and
requested that he work freelance for the paper. In 1968, the editor invited
Nzima to join as a full-time photojournalist. On June 16 1976, Nzima took the
iconic picture of Hector Pieterson and The World published the photo the next
day.
As a result, Nzima was forced to hide because of the
harassment he was receiving by the security police. He moved back to Lilydale,
where he was kept under surveillance by security police. The World was closed
down by the government in 1978, The Rand Daily Mail and The Star newspapers
requested that Nzima work for these publications but he refused due to the
security risk.
In 1979, Chief Minister Hudson Ntsanwisi of the Gazankulu
bantustan made Nzima a member of the legislative assembly. Nzima faced many
years of torment while trying to publish his iconic picture.
Today Nzima believes that through his photography, he
contributed a lot towards achieving democracy in South Africa and his picture
of Hector Peterson has become an international symbol of the struggle for
freedom in South Africa.
He is currently living in Lilydale and has served on the
Lilydale Municipality Council and the Bohlabela District Council. Nzima runs a
photography school and plans to build a museum and gallery in Lilydale,
situated near the Kruger National Park and Sabi Sands Game Reserves. He also
has plans to do a series of photographs under the title South Africa Today through Sam Nzima’s Eyes.
The 2014 ACT Awards ceremony is sponsored by Nedbank Arts
Affinity, hosted by Sun International and presented in association with the
Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO), Media24 Books,
ClassicFeel Magazine and is supported by the Distell Foundation and Business
and Arts South Africa (BASA).
Other Lifetime Achievement Award Winners include Richard
Loring for Theatre, Andre Brink for Literature, Richard Cock for Music and
Mandie van der Spuy for Arts Advocacy. Each Lifetime Achievement Award winner
received R30,000 as a cash prize.
For more information about the Arts & Culture Trust
(ACT) visit http://www.act.org.za/
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