Yesterday marked the celebration of Youth Day in South Africa. In 1976 an estimated 20,000 young people from Soweto led a demonstration against the segregated Bantu Education system which forced many blacks into poorly paid, subservient positions of employment, designed to provide them with skills to serve their own people in the homelands or to work in labouring jobs under whites. To add insult to injury, the Department of Education issued its decree that Afrikaans was to become a language of instruction at school, when most of the pupils and teachers could not even speak it. Add this to the fact that “the government spent R644 a year on a white child’s education but only R42 on a black child”, and due to lack of space and facilities, many young people had to stay in Primary School, and you’ve got a revolution on your hands. According to an article on About.com, “In June, Form 1 and 2 students from Orlando West Junior Primary School (also known as Phefeni) staged a classroom boycott. They were joined by students from seven other Soweto schools. The Department of Bantu Education sent the police in…” The result was students setting fire to symbols of Apartheid, police vehicles being overturned, shots fired, teargas released, bottles and stones being throwed… and it continued throughout the night.

The official death toll was 23, but other sources claim anything from 200 to 700. “A new generation had made their voice of opposition to apartheid heard, and we’re determined to be listed to.” As one of the students wrote to The World newspaper… “Our parents are prepared to suffer under the white man’s rule. They have been living for years under these laws and they have become immune to them. But we strongly refuse to swallow an education that is designed to make us slaves in the country of our birth.”

Fast forward to 2008 and what have you got? These students are now grown-up, Apartheid has ended 14 years ago, and what is happening now? Xenophobic attacks… Could it be that the same school pupils who fought so hard for their freedom are now killing other Africans who are doing just that? Granted, the unemployment rate, failure of government to deliver services etc. plays a role, and as president of the IFP, Mangosuthu Buthelezi says in an article in The Times: ‘The reality was that, after 14 years of democracy, SA still couldn’t boast that a better life for all had been achieved. In some instances, the country had gone backwards, he said.” Food prices are skyrocketing. Electricity supply is unstable. Fuel costs are exorbitant and rising fast. Criminality is rampant. Jobs are scarce. For many, houses are still unaffordable. Education is not up to scratch. During the apartheid era, school children were exposed to intimidation and violence by the police. Today, school children experience intimidation and violence in their own classrooms from their own teachers and classmates.”’ He urged young people to more politically involved again.
President Thabo Mbeki spoke at Youth Day commemorations at the University of the Western Cape yesterday, and urged the youth to honor those students of 1976 by focusing on education and personal skills development, and he also stated that: “Whereas the youth of 1976 went into exile to train as soldiers of liberation, the youth of today should go to school and college or university to acquire the skills they would use for their advancement and the development of our country and continent”. This is good advice, but what is the president himself doing to develop the country and, especially (wrt Zimbabwe), the continent?
Nelson Mandela made a rare public appearance in Cape Town yesterday, and addressed the youth by saying: “As future leaders of this country, your challenge is to foster a nation in which all people irrespective of race, colour, sex, religion or creed can ascertain a social cohesion fully. Mindful of your own challenges, you must continue to promote the principle of relentless freedom and democracy as it is the foundation upon which issues of human rights are ingrained.”
I would stick to Mandela’s advice, which, if followed, would achieve some good, and really honor those students of 1976, contrary to xenophobic hate…