The 1976 youth protests should challenge today’s youth to confront the problems affecting us head-on. Access to quality education is the most important asset youth should acquire to tackle unemployment and other social ills.
As the youth, we must assume an active role as agents of change, reconstruction and development. We need to redirect our focus and energy towards personal growth and socioeconomic development of the country, in line with the vision towards strengthening our democracy.
Youth Month is dedicated to honor the bravery and sacrifice of the courageous youth who were at the forefront of the struggle against Bantu education in 1976. The apartheid police maimed and killed many students by shooting them unprovoked for protesting peacefully to demand quality education.
We should learn from the revolutionary roles played by the country’s gallant cadres in addressing the problems weface today. It is therefore crucial that we organize ourselves to seek redress and equal rights as recognized by the constitution.
What the youth of 1976 did to stand up against injustice and classification of black as less deserving, should be emulated to root out the current erosion of black excellence by drugs, gender-based violence and child abuse.
The killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was suffocated to death by a white policeman in Minneapolis, US, has galvanized protests and marches all over the world this Youth Month, calling for an end to racism.
