IN celebration of Youth Day, residents from Wentworth will today (June 16) take part in a march that will start from Austerville Drive near the Wentworth Victim Friendly Centre and end at the Austerville Community Hall.

The march will start at 10:00 and will be followed by a mural painting led by the youth of Wentworth.

Some of the issues that will be highlighted during the march include:

• High youth unemployment
• Crime and violence
• Gender-based violence (GBV)
• Lack of youth in decision making
• Child abductions and human trafficking

March organiser, Marvin Rall said the event will honour the lives of those involved in the 1976 youth uprising as part of the 50th anniversary commemoration.

Also read: Wentworth youth face firearm charges

On June 16, 1976, more than 20 000 learners from Soweto began a protest march in the wake of clashes with the police. The violence that ensued during the next few weeks, about 700 hundred people, many of them youth, were killed and many properties destroyed.

The 2026 commemoration is held under the theme RESET@50 – The Future Calls, with the slogan, Our National Commitment to the Future, for Freedom Lives in Every Generation, and is further anchored by the focus on “Mapping the Barriers: Auditing Access for Economic Inclusion”.

For more information, members of the public can contact the organiser of the march, Marvin Rall on 067 636 8944.

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