Tsietsi mashinini biography of rory

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As they marched down in a throng, they came across a police barricade on their way to the mass demonstration assembly point.

It is now related that at a meeting of students from various schools in Soweto on Sunday, 13 June 1976, Mr Mashinini delivered a moving and remarkable speech, calling for a mass demonstration the following Wednesday, 16 June, against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in all black schools.

He was hospitalised for multiple injuries, aparently the result of an attack.  He died a few days later. It is estimated that 20000 uniformed students joined the mass demonstration. The students aimed their stones at the police, and the shooting began.

Mashinini climbed on top of an upturned vehicle and urged the students to go home.

Former teacher Mrs Benadette Mosala said of him: “He had real potential in the theatre and asked for assistance for his productions. He had high aims for himself and would refuse to play second fiddle. The marriage was blessed with two daughters, Nomkhitha (named after his mother) and Thembi. A Pretoria minister, Reverend Legotlo, offered to drive him across the border to Botswana, but Mashinini was hesitant: "I don't want to leave the struggle.

A well-read student and a gifted public speaker, he used both these qualities to maximum effect, mobilising students into action. He stood on a makeshift podium to make an impromptu yet spirited address, telling students to march peacefully, orderly and not to provoke the police. Heads of states, notably Sekou Toure of Ivory Coast, and African parliamentarians received him.

But the revolt had started and could not be stopped. The police offered a R500 reward for anyone who could supply information that would lead to his arrest. His brother Dee saw him once in Nigeria, where he appeared shrunken, shabby, paranoid and incoherent. He sported an Afro and wore bell-bottomed trousers and high-heeled shoes, and had a vibrant social life.Mashinini joined the South African Students Movement, a student body established to assist students with the transition from Matric to university.

On 13th June 1976, about 500 Soweto students met at the Orlando Donaldson Community Hall to discuss ways and means of confronting and challenging the Department of Bantu Education.

It is estimated that about 20 000 uniformed students joined the mass demonstration that day.

Not surprisingly after 16 June, he became the most wanted man in the country by the apartheid police. He sauntered past them wearing a girl's dungarees and a beret. He had not been heard from for several years when news came of his unexplained death in july 1990 in Conakry,Guinea.