life-Size bronze of liberation hero Hector Pieterson is donated to the people of Soweto.
President Nelson Mandela receiving a minature version of the Hector Pieterson Statue from Dan Oloffson
The world-renowned photograph that personified the struggle for freedom in South Africa is now immortalised in bronze.
The life-size Hector Pieterson statue is a gift of friendship from the people of Sweden and South Africa to the people of Soweto to honour and commemorate this defining moment in South Africa’s history,” said Swedish IT entrepreneur, Dan Olofsson, who is the founder of the Thanda Foundation.
A non-profit trust, the Thanda Foundation co-sponsored the statue together with South African entrepreneur, Matthews Phosa, as part of its South African social responsibility programme.
The Hector Pieterson statue is the world’s first public statue of this iconic liberation image.
“Hector Pieterson and his generation will forever remain an inspiration and source of national pride for all South Africans,” says Phosa.
Standing 1.88-metres tall and weighing 300 kilograms, it was sculpted by renowned South African sculptors, Kobus Hattingh and Jacob Maponyane. These are the same sculptors who made the world’s first public statue of Nelson Mandela, standing 6-metres tall and weighing 2.5 tons - in Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton.
The life-size Hector Pieterson statue was moulded using computer graphics from the iconic photograph taken by newspaper photographer, Sam Nzima, on June 16th 1976.
The photograph featured the fatally wounded 14-year-old Hector Pieterson, the first child to be shot dead by South African police during the student march against apartheid on June 16th, 1976, in the township of Soweto.
On Tuesday 13 June, 2006, a smaller replica of the Hector Pieterson statue was handed to Nelson Mandela at his office by the Thanda Foundation.
“June 16th 1976 was a critical turning point in South Africa’s history and it focused the international community’s heart and mind on the plight of the struggle,” said Dan Olofsson.
Sweden has always been a loyal supporter of a democratic South Africa. It was one of the first countries to boycott the apartheid regime and one of the first countries to reinvest in the new South African democracy.
Thirty years later June 16th is known as Youth Day, a public holiday that commemorates the defining role of the youth of South Africa in the struggle for freedom and democracy.
The life-size Hector Pieterson statue will be handed to the people of Soweto at a global accountability function to be held in Johannesburg later this year. The function will be hosted by the Thanda Foundation and attended by business leaders from South Africa, Sweden and around the world.
A possible site for the statue is the Hector Pieterson Museum in Orlando West, Soweto.
A memorial alongside the museum honours the sacrifices made by Hector Pieterson and the children of South Africa on that tragic day.
The Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial is a short distance from another world-renowned South African struggle site and tourist attraction, Vilakazi Street. It is the only street in the world that can boast two Nobel Peace Prize winners as its early residents. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu both lived on this street in the struggle years.
The Hector Pieterson Museum and Memorial currently receives several thousand visitors a month.
The Thanda Foundation believes the statue will attract still more visitors to Soweto, the most famous township in the world.
Visitors to Soweto make an important contribution to the economy, social upliftment and spirit of this township that, over the past thirty years, has transformed from an apartheid stronghold into a thriving, tourist-friendly metropolis.
The Thanda Foundation is a non-profit trust established by Swedish IT entrepreneur, Dan Olofsson and his wife Christin, as part of their South African investment company, the Thanda Group.
Olofsson is the chairperson of the Thanda Group. Vice chairperson and chief executive is Pierre Delvaux, a South Africa entrepreneur based in KwaZulu Natal who is a trustee of the Thanda Foundation.
The Thanda Group’s ethos is to combine tourist, leisure and property developments with significant community upliftment and empowerment programmes.
Based in Malmö, Sweden, Olofsson is the founder of three leading Swedish information technology companies: Sigma AB, Teleca AB and Epsilon AB.
Olofsson is one the ‘now league’ of global business leaders who are pioneering practical and sustainable social responsibility projects in the developing world.
