By Staff Reporter
Tributes have been pouring in for veteran South African photographer Peter Magubane who captured the violence and horror of the apartheid era of racial oppression.
Magubane died on Monday at the age of 91, according to the South African National Editors' Forum, which said it had been informed of his death by his family.
No cause of death was given, but the editors' forum said "he passed peacefully surrounded by his family."
He was born in the Johannesburg suburb of Vrededorp - now Pageview - and grew up in Sophiatown, once a hub to famous black artists that was eventually destroyed under apartheid.
Shot 17 times
The White-minority apartheid regime imprisoned Magubane numerous times and subjected him to a five-year ban that prevented him from working or even leaving his home without police permission.
He said he was shot 17 times with shotgun pellets by apartheid police while on an assignment.
He was also beaten and had his nose broken by police when he refused to give up the photographs he took of the Soweto uprisings in 1976 when black students protested against a law making the Afrikaans language compulsory in school.
One of his landmark images taken in a wealthy Johannesburg suburb showed a white girl sitting on a bench with a sign reading "Europeans Only" while a Black worker sat behind her combing her hair.
In its tributes, the South African government said Magubane “covered the most historic moments in the liberation struggle against apartheid.”
'Iconic records'
President Cyril Ramaphosa offered condolences to Magubane's family in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
"For most of his life, Peter Magubane created iconic visual records of our struggle for freedom and of the full range of life in our country," Ramaphosa said.
Culture Minister Zizi Kodwa wrote: "South Africa has lost a freedom fighter, a masterful storyteller and lensman... Peter Magubane fearlessly documented apartheid's injustices."
The ruling ANC party said it was saddened by the death of Magubane whose legacy "is etched in the collective memory of South Africans".
'Captured raw emotions'
"Magubane's lens captured and documented the raw emotions, stories and pivotal moments that defined our nation's history," it said.
Magubane's daughter, Fikile, eulogised him as someone who was passionate about his work.
"He was very passionate about his work, everything else would stop when it comes to his work," his daughter Fikile Magubane said.
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