Youth Day: What 16 June means to the youth today

It is very important for young people to know the history of the country.

June 16, 2019

Sharon Ntimane 1 minute read

Rekord took some time to speak to the youth about what 16 June 1976 means to them recently.

It is very important for young people to know the history of the country, to know what their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents had to go through for a better, just and free South Africa.

Mixo Manzini (21) tourism student at Denver College, Pretoria.

Mixo knows June 16 to be the first day of the Soweto uprising.

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“It began there and spread to other townships around the country and continued until year-end in the face of harsh repression,” Manzini said.

For her, the day recognised the role of the youths in the liberation of the country from the apartheid government.

Percy Chauke (21) media studies student at Boston Media House, Pretoria.

“June 16 is a day of commemoration for the youth of 1976, because of the effort they put in our education.” Percy said, however, that nowadays, the youths used June 16 as an excuse to get drunk.

Khethabahle Shabangu (18) grade 12 learner.

“This is youth day. A day to acknowledge the youth that fought for our freedom during the apartheid era and the bettering of our education. This to me means that I must value education and keep on working hard,” said, Shabangu.

Thabile Makau (23) law student at the University of South Africa.

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“What I know and understand about June 16 is that those students knew that their parents were prepared to suffer under the white man’s rule,’’ Makau said.

She also said the parents lived for years under the apartheid regime’s rules that they became immune to them, but the students eventually stood up and “refused to swallow an education that made them slaves in their own county”.