Pupils join debate on race
On Freedom Day, school kids make their voices heard on forging a non-racial country
THE CALL for a non-racial South Africa has grown stronger as high school pupils joined the debate. Yesterday, at an event held at Spine Road High School, pupils from five southern suburbs high schools engaged in a dialogue about racism.
The pupils spoke about how racism affected their lives.
Devine Gambe, 17, a Grade 10 pupil at Wittebome High School who addressed pupils, said: “We have to be fully armed with information on racism and the different ways it is expressed in, because many people believed it died in 1994, but today we still see how the old habits still apply in this world.”
Devine said as a black child, he still saw stereotypes like “black children could not achieve greatness”.
“Today, we want to teach each other that one should not be afraid of going to the ‘so-called white schools’,” he said.
Charles Thomas, the organiser and member of the Southern Suburbs Cultural Society, said the society, felt it was important to create a platform for youth to engage in racism talks.
He said: “Lots of people have grown up in the prejudice and notion of racism; unless we roll back the notion of racialism and racism, we will not be able to look forward to the future.”
Suspended South Peninsula High School principal Brian Isaacs said an upsurge in incidences of racism, which made headlines towards the end of last year, has signalled an urgent need for racism talks.
Independent Media, Sekunjalo Investment Holdings and the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union teamed up to launch the #RacismStopsWithMe campaign, which actively fights the scourge of racism.
Isaacs said: “This is for them (pupils) to begin to talk about ways of overcoming racism.
“We want to hear their views as to how to solve it. We need to look at reality from their side, they are the future, therefore, they can determine how we can move forward on this issue.”
Among those who spoke at the youth dialogue was hip hop artist and social activist Emile Jansen.
He said: “I wanted to hear from the young people what they had to say about racism and second, share with them through our songs on the illusion on race. Our songs challenge the ear because there are sounds of hip hop infused with Khoi and Zulu.”
Bradley Sylvester, 17, a Grade 12 pupil at Crestway High School, in Retreat, said he felt it was necessary for him to attend the event, despite yesterday being a public holiday. Bradley said: “This day, to me, is proof that without the Struggle fought by our past heroes, us ‘born-frees’ would not be here converging and celebrating our freedom.” THURSDAY APRIL 28 2016
Ntsikelelo Klaas, 22, a Grade 11 pupil at Philippi High School, said: “We need to remind each other that we are all human, even though we have different cultures.”