June 16 Youth Day

The 16th of June, is Youth Day, a public holiday in South Africa, observed to commemorate the 1976 Soweto uprisings.

“I was in Johannesburg that day, in Noordgesig. As the children were marching, we were there helping wash the teargas out of their eyes. You couldn’t trust anyone in those days. On June 16 there’s always a function for the youth and we cook for them. Sometimes we get a film on June 16 and it brings back memories. I think it’s very good for the children to see what happened on that very special day.” – "Aunt Koekie" Jeremiah.

As we celebrate this day let’s not forget our heroes, the likes  of Hector Peterson Tsietsi Mashinini,let us not abuse the freedom they have fought for, some with their dear lives.

As u walk on that road wearing your school uniform please remember the cause do not drink in your school uniform, Hector fought for better lives for all not a drunk nation.

The uprisings marked a key moment in South Africa’s struggle for liberation during apartheid: they were a spontaneous, sustained challenge to the racist government from an unlikely source, the country’s youth.

On 16 June, 1976, a large band of schoolchildren gathered in Orlando, Soweto (and other areas), to march against the government’s imposition of Afrikaans as the universal medium of learning. The police arrived to break the protest up, and, during the confrontation, began to fire with live ammunition on the students. Many were killed – including Hector Pietersen, subject of an iconic photograph that is featured at the Soweto memorial where he fell.