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SA NEWS
Youth month, is a month that the youth
need to respect, honour and admire be
cause many lives were lost for us to have
a better future. It needs to be given the
respect it deserves not by getting drunk or using
drugs but by attending political events that
respect this day (June 16), going
to
to apartheid museums to learn
about our history and understand
what happened on June 16. A better
perspective of why we celebrate the
freedom we have in our country.
Malenyalo Molemane
When the language of Afrikaans alongside English
was made compulsory as a medium of instruction in
local schools in 1974 on the street of Soweto in South
Africa, black students began mobilizing themselves.
The Soweto Uprising, known as 16 June according to
www.sahistory.org.za, is a series of protests led by high
school students in our country that began on the morning of 16 June 1976. Students from numerous Sowetan
schools began to protest in the streets of Soweto
against the government ruling about the compulsory
languages in their schools.
The march was meant to end at a rally in Orlando Stadium but on their way they were met by heavily armed
police who fired teargas and bullets to the student. This
resulted in a widespread revolt that turned into an uprising against the government. The country lost many
heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives for better
education for all.
112 - Student
Knowing what the youth of 1976 have done to overcome the challenges they faced back then, what are
we going to do with the challenges we are facing today
as the youth. We need solutions, strategies to overcome obstacles such as unemployment, HIV/AIDS,
teenager pregnancy, financial aid for education. We
need to be remembered by the next generation also
with the good we have done. We embrace and thank
all the youth of 1976, and it’s time for the youth of
today to rise.