Commemorating June 16 2020

Living in a predominantly black country yet as a black South African you are treated as a 2nd-grade citizen forced to live in impoverished townships with little to no access to bare basic amenities.
Following the promulgation into law in 1953, the Bantu Education Act was a further means of ensuring that the education you received was designed to limit you to menial, low-wage labour. So when the government decreed that black students had to now be taught in Afrikaans, they had had enough and after months of preparation, an estimated 20 000 students in Soweto left their schools and marched in peaceful protest of their educational system. 16 June 1976 - it was a cold and cloudy day and students were waving their placards scrawling slogans “AWAY WITH AFRIKAANS” and “WE ARE BEING CERTIFIED BUT NOT EDUCATED” and signing when suddenly apartheid police marched down the streets shouting at the students to disperse whilst being sprayed with teargas and live ammunition. We know how it ended - I am literally visualising the photo by the esteemed Tata Sam Nzima who captured the iconic photograph showing 18-year-old Mbuyisa Makhubo carrying the lifeless body of 13-year-old Hector Pieterson and his 15-year-old sister Antoinette Sithole running alongside him.
Little did these students know that their actions would be one of the most influential and impactful marches forcing the world to stop ignoring the absolute horror of apartheid. It emboldened the liberation movement and served to shape the course of history.
Let’s fast forward to today, June 16, 2020, 44 years later, to South Africa in present-day terms. High school students from across the country are protesting against the institutionalised racist and sexist systems that underpin their schools and the manner in which they are received, taught and treated Yet again, the students are the ones leading the charge in dismantling the discrimination which has become such a casual way of life for many South African teenagers. Although our combined protests have a different cause in different era, the one common quality we share is fearless youth that want to implement change for the betterment of all South Africans. 44 years ago, on this day, our mothers and fathers stood together as one group of students; they were united in their beliefs, united in their support of one another and united in their protest, no matter their background, or their school. Likewise, we stand united.
Those very same people have enabled us, the youth of today, to be granted the level of education we have. They dismantled the Bantu Education Act, and ultimately removed the compulsory nature of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction for all schools. We are where we are owing to the ongoing efforts of the youth.
So I encourage the youth to raise your voices, continue to express your opinions and views no matter who you face. For, it is OUR voices who will be the architects in dismantling the injustices that have remained in our present systems. It is OUR voices that are being heard throughout the nation at every level; it is OUR voices who will hold those accountable for their (un)conscious biases, stereotyping and differentiated treatment of us all. It is OUR voices that will change both South Africa and the world. As Nelson Mandela said, we, the youth, are the leaders of tomorrow. The time for change is here and now. We will not be silenced.
Happy Youth Day 2020.
Khelan Mooloo
Head of Being and Belonging