Race to make June 16 movie before next year's 50th anniversary

“The people's poet” Mzwakhe Mbuli is in a race against time to get his June 16 action movie filmed and released before next year's 50th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising.

The movie script, completed more than seven years ago after years of research, has been gathering dust as Mbuli and his team, which includes filmmaker Mickey Dube, have struggled to raise the required R100m.

Mbuli says that despite promises and pledges made by several government institutions including the National Lotteries Commission, he has been unable to raise the funds.

He said there were many “uncomfortable truths” about the events of June 16 that could not be told, especially during apartheid.

“I know this because I was there and remember many things that happened on the day and during the funerals of those who were brutally killed by the apartheid government.”

The full story of June 16 and subsequent events has never been told.

—  Mzwakhe Mbuli 

Mbuli told Sunday Times the movie seeks to tell the story of the day and subsequent events, “which have never been told” and are “long overdue”.

“We want to ensure that we get the movie done and completed before the 50th anniversary ... I have made contact with trade, industry and competition minister Parks Tau already and await his team's response.”

Mbuli said the script took years of research, including interviewing many who took part in the protest.

He touched on the story of a green vehicle apparently carrying apartheid snipers which roamed the township on a killing spree in the aftermath of June 16.

“Even at the funerals, shootings would take place if the burial couldn't be wrapped up in 15 minutes as per the orders of apartheid police who were stationed at the cemeteries around Soweto.”

Mbuli said the June 16 story had always focused on three people, student leader Tsietsi Mashinini, Hector Pieterson and Mbuyisa Makhubu, who went into exile after the uprising.

“There are people like Enos Ngutshane, who we also spoke to, who was a student at Naledi High School and who wrote a letter to the minister of education in May 1976 rejecting Afrikaans as a medium of instruction,” Mbuli said.

He said many people were not aware that two weeks before June 16, a police vehicle was torched by angry students at Naledi High School as police attempted to arrest Ngutshane.

Mbuli said movies like Sarafina had been “allowed” because they were more about entertainment, singing and dancing than telling the real June 16 story.

Mbuli said after meetings with the department of trade and industry, the National Lotteries Commission and the department of arts and culture, a resolution had been taken in 2015 that the movie would be funded.

“We even projected that we would have our premiere in 2018, but there was silence after that big meeting until today. Now, people who were leading those departments and the NLC are no longer there,” Mbuli said.

Jabu Ngwenya, anti-apartheid activist and member of the June 16 Foundation, said the June 16 movie was long overdue and he supported its production.

Ngwenya said though he was yet to see the script, he believed the movie was necessary.

Dube, who studied at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said that after a joint meeting in December 2015 attended by the NLC, DTI and the sport, arts and culture department, they left feeling “over the moon” as everyone who attended agreed that the movie would be funded.

“Out of excitement we printed a few caps with the embroidery: “JUNE 16 Movie” to create euphoria.”

Dube said they felt at the time that “finally the true story about apartheid brutality including live ammunition being unleashed on peaceful and defenceless schoolchildren” would be fully told.