When we celebrate Youth Day on 16 June, the first image that comes to our minds is the iconic photo of a dying Hector Peterson. His sister runs at his side, terror spread across her face. But what about the boy holding Hector Peterson? What about the boy, who in an act of heroism, picked…
Unfinished Business
In December of 1990, Momzi said goodbye to her husband as he hurried out the door to work a night shift. Her husband returned home the next morning to find that his house had been demolished. Everything he owned was broken. He called out to his wife, but there was no answer. Momzi was gone.…
She Died of a Broken Heart
Can you die of a broken heart? In 2013, a mother stood at the edge of the memorial for her son. She had been waiting to properly bury her son since he disappeared at the age of 19, in 1989. Now, 24 years later she was asked to find closure in burying a clump of…
They Came in the Night
“Soldiers came in the night. They took my brother away.” Sphiwe’s sister recalls the last time she would ever see her brother alive. In 1994, the same year a democracy was born in South Africa, Sphiwe was taken. When his sister thinks back to that night she remembers the police kicking down the door in…
The Right to the Truth
So my truth lies in the essence of my being It is as infinite as the steps of my ancestry My story did not begin at the arrival of false civilianization It is as ancient as the oceans yet as new as the sun rises every morning It is not the words of those who…
A Search That Never Ends
Tonny Adams woke up on a sunny morning in 1991 in Soweto, and got ready for work. It was a day like any other… until the police came for him. Tonny was at work when the police arrived. They informed Tonny’s boss that they needed to take him for a few hours, and would bring…
Robert’s Story: Empty Promises. Empty Graves. Empty Hearts.
During the Soweto uprising of 1976, Robert, an 18-year old student, joined the struggle and left South Africa for exile. Left behind were his six siblings and his parents. Six years later, his parents heard a knock at the door. But standing in the doorway was not Robert. In the place where Robert should have…
What Democracy? Political Activist Papi Tobias Still Missing
Who is Papi Tobias? He is a 47-year old man from Boiketlong. He is a father of three, a brother, a son. He is a heavily involved political activist who fought for the rights of his community and the South African people. Papi Tobias has disappeared. Enforced disappearance is often thought of as a crime…
Wounds Begin to Heal: Reuniting the Kubeka Family
On Thursday June 8th, Banele and two of his siblings opened the newspaper to find an article about a woman named Melinda from Germany. But this article also contained another name: Alpheus Mpikeleli Kubeka – their brother. In 1977, their brother left South Africa for exile during the Apartheid regime. Alpheus’ family never heard from…
An Unresolved History: One Who Reappeared
In recognition of the International Week of the Disappeared, Khulumani Support Group honours those who disappeared, brings the story to light of one who returned, and calls upon the government to stop the gross human rights violation of enforced disappearance from ever occurring again.
The Disappeared 