Today the country commemorates 42 years since the June 16 student uprisings that rocked Soweto and quickly spread to other parts of the country
Political parties, government and other institutions will be honouring that event today in different ways.
President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver the keynote address at the main event in Soweto, Johannesburg.
He said earlier that South Africans should use this day – during Youth Month – to give special attention to the challenges facing young people, and to unlock opportunities to allow them to determine their destiny.
“Our youth were at the forefront of the fight against apartheid. The class of 1976 exposed the brutality of the apartheid regime to the world and ignited resistance around the country,” Ramaphosa said.
“Forty-two years later, young people must help keep their legacy alive by taking advantage of opportunities to build our country and change their lives.
“Young people should join the ranks of active and responsible citizens by participating in democratic structures and processes like elections, as well as being active leaders in the fight against crime, substance abuse, corruption and acts of violence,” said Ramaphosa.
The Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) will today visit the spot where Steve Biko was apprehended by apartheid police in August 1977 – at the foot of the 1820 Settler’s Monument in Grahamstown. Azapo spokesman Funani Ntontela said Youth Day should be used to reflect on the transformation that had been achieved between June 1976 and present-day South Africa.
He said student protests calling for a free and decolonised education system might begin to answer that question.
The question of land was just as important. “It is time that South Africa asks the uncomfortable questions that have been suppressed for the sake of peace. “We must be honest with the current generation,” said Ntontela.
The Saturday Dispatch spoke to young political leaders about what Youth Day meant to them.
The EFF’s Buntu Gwija said the role of the youth in politics has always been centred around mobilisation.
“We must transform education, we must cut down the barriers that block education.
“We must create a youth that is able to follow an idea, and an idea of a free, a fair and equal society. We must be careful as the engines of mobilisation that we are educated and yes we must be politically educated to challenge the elements of discourse,” said Gwija.
The ANC’s Youth League’s Desmond Davies said he would advise the youth of this generation to create co-operatives. “The municipality has underspent but there is a lot of youth that is unemployed. They must create their own employment,” said Davies.
The DA’s Luyolo Mphithi said the lessons from the youth of 1976 would not be irrelevant to the youth of any generation. He said the youth of 1976 showed having a common goal was powerful in dismantling apartheid.
“We must in our different spaces advocate for the inclusion of the youth in all the economic solutions and discussions that seek to advance the economy of this country.
“The importance of having one goal for the youth will always put us a step closer to the eradication of the youth’s challenges,” said Mphithi...