Freedom Day celebrated at Jeppe High
It has become tradition for the three schools to come together on the day before the Freedom Day holiday to celebrate the country’s hard-fought independence by listening to a prominent guest speaker.
The three Jeppe Schools – Jeppe High School for Boys, Jeppe High School for Girls and Jeppe High Preparatory School – held a joint Freedom Day assembly at the boys’ school on April 26.
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It has become a tradition for the three schools to come together before the Freedom Day holiday to celebrate the country’s hard-fought independence by listening to a prominent guest speaker.
This year the speaker was Antoinette Sithole, the sister of Hector Pietersen, the schoolboy killed on June 16, 1976.
This was the first gathering of the kind since 2019, with the last two years affected by Covid-19.
Jeppe High School for Boys headmaster, Dale Jackson, opened the morning with a speech about Jeppe’s role during the past 28 years of freedom and the importance of diversity and inclusion.
He said that the diversity of the three schools was the aspect of what he is most proud of and noted that this was not possible when he was at school in 1990 and that everyone should be thankful to those who made that possible.
Omphile Mogaki, speaking on behalf of the learners, urged them as “born frees” to live up to the standards of the generations that went before them and who sacrificed so much so that they can enjoy the freedoms they now have.
Sithole described what it was like for the children in Soweto in the days leading up to June 16, 1976, and the events leading up to the death of her brother. She also talked about the famous photograph, taken by Sam Nzima on the day, of her and Hector’s body being carried by Mbuyisa Makhubu.
Her message to the gathering was that freedom is dangerous.
“South Africa can never be free until we all live up to the ideals of those who rose against the oppressive regime in 1976,” she said.
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