WeeklySA_AdminMYSTERY: A new biography of 1976 student leader Tsietsi Mashinini has sparked an emotional public reckoning, as his family revisits decades-old questions about his mysterious death, political divisions in the liberation struggle and the enduring search for truth…
By Jacob Mawela
What was expected to be a routine book launch became an emotionally charged evening of painful memories, unresolved political divisions and a family’s enduring search for answers when author Sam Mathe launched his new biography, Tsietsi Mashinini: Elusive Hero of Soweto, at Exclusive Books in Johannesburg’s Mall of the South.
Guests who gathered for the late Youth Month event anticipated a discussion about the book and a signing session. Instead, they witnessed an emotional intervention from Mashinini’s younger brother, Dichaba, who laid bare the family’s decades-long anguish over the mysterious death of the iconic leader of the 1976 Soweto Uprising.
Invited to address the audience by moderator and News24 journalist Bongekile Macupe, Dichaba—whom Mathe credited for providing valuable family information during his research—spoke candidly about the devastating impact Tsietsi’s death had on their mother, Nomkhitha.
“I can’t forgive these guys,” he said, without naming those he believes were responsible.
The ninth of 13 siblings and one of only three surviving brothers, Dichaba described how the family’s suffering began long before Tsietsi’s death.
He revealed that their mother had initially been unaware that her second-born son had emerged as one of the principal organisers of the June 16, 1976 student uprising against the apartheid government’s decision to impose Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.
As security police intensified their crackdown, Nomkhitha was detained without trial in 1977 at a prison far from Soweto. After her release the following year, she reportedly struggled to find employment after being branded both a communist and a terrorist.
Dichaba also recalled growing up under constant police surveillance in the family’s Central Western Jabavu home, describing midnight raids, repeated tear-gassing and intimidation.
He said neighbours often made him feel guilty simply because he was “ngwana ko bo Tsietsi”—Tsietsi’s younger brother.
His emotional testimony underscored the unresolved mystery surrounding Mashinini’s death in Guinea in July 1990.
Thirty-five years later, conflicting accounts continue to surround his final days, with various explanations attributing his death to illness, assault or murder.
Family members have long questioned those accounts, saying the body returned to South Africa in August 1990 bore injuries they believed were inconsistent with a natural death.
The uncertainty was compounded by the fact that no post-mortem examination was conducted after the body arrived home. Calls for an official inquest, first made in 2012, have yet to result in any formal investigation.
Mathe’s biography revisits those unresolved questions, suggesting Mashinini’s death forms part of a wider pattern of unanswered cases involving anti-apartheid activists, including Steve Biko and Onkgopotse Tiro.
The author also notes that those closest to Mashinini—including international music icon Miriam Makeba, with whom he lived during exile—never publicly clarified the circumstances surrounding his death.
The book further explores the ideological battles that followed Mashinini into exile.
According to Mathe, tensions between supporters of Black Consciousness and the ANC continued abroad, where Mashinini reportedly resisted joining the ANC. The biography argues that political rivalries later contributed to efforts to diminish his legacy.
Mathe also revisits incidents including the vandalism of Mashinini’s tombstone at Avalon Cemetery and later political attempts to appropriate his legacy.
One such example occurred in 2024, when the uMkhonto weSizwe Party draped Mashinini’s statue at the June 16 Interpretation Centre in party regalia—an act widely criticised as politically opportunistic.
The book places Mashinini’s story within a broader history of ideological conflict that also affected other activists.
Among those mentioned is fellow Soweto Students’ Representative Council leader Jefferson Lengane, whose father was murdered during the political violence of the 1980s. Lengane himself later became a journalist and colleague of Mathe at Drum magazine before his Soweto home was allegedly torched by political rivals.
In a chapter titled Return and Burial, Mathe asks whether Mashinini’s death should be understood against this backdrop of violent political rivalries within the liberation struggle.
Yet the biography also traces the gradual official recognition of Mashinini’s contribution after democracy.
His statue was unveiled during the 34th anniversary commemorations of the Soweto Uprising in 2010, and in 2011 he was posthumously awarded the Order of Luthuli in Bronze.
Mathe also recalls remarks made by future President Thabo Mbeki at Mashinini’s funeral in August 1990.
“Personally, I’m very happy to have known Tsietsi,” Mbeki said. “To some extent I feel guilty that we were not around all the time in the absence of his parents to assist him to grow up and persist along the path he had chosen.”
Speaking at the launch, Mathe described the biography as an attempt to present a fuller picture of a man often remembered only for his role in June 1976. He acknowledged that it is “not the whole story”, but expressed surprise that no comprehensive South African biography had previously been written about one of the uprising’s most recognisable figures.
The closest work, he noted, was American journalist Lynda Schuster’s 2004 book A Burning Hunger: One Family’s Struggle Against Apartheid, in which she observed: “If the Mandelas were the generals in the fight for black liberation, the Mashininis were the foot soldiers.”
Mathe’s biography also reveals the more personal side of Mashinini’s life in exile, including his marriage in Liberia to former Miss Liberia Welma Campbell, whom he met through Miriam Makeba.
The 224-page paperback, published by Tafelberg, includes previously published photographs of the couple’s wedding as well as the iconic image of Mashinini and fellow activist Khotso Seatlholo raising clenched fists during their 1977 reunion in Botswana, photographed by the late Alf Kumalo.
Released 50 years after the Soweto Uprising, Tsietsi Mashinini: Elusive Hero of Soweto seeks not only to honour one of South Africa’s most celebrated student leaders, but also to reopen difficult questions that history has yet to answer. Tsietsi Mashinini: Elusive Hero of Soweto is available at Exclusive Books and other selected shops for. R300.
