Youth must recognise significance of June 16

Solve challenges instead of braaing and abusing alcohol, writes Thebe Kgwetiane from Maandagshoek.

June is youth month in our country in commemoration of the June 16, 1976 Soweto uprising. We as young people are set to celebrate June 16 tomorrow, but I wonder how many know the importance of this day?

On the morning of June 16, 1976 police opened fire on young Soweto students protesting against the apartheid government’s inferior “bantu” education.

The youth of 1976 had their own challenges in the form of “bantu” education and they fought against it and eventually won.

As the youth of today we have our own challenges, namely crime, drugs, unemployment, poverty, expensive tertiary fees and teen pregnancies.

We, as the youth of today, have to take a leaf from the youth of 1976 and face our challenges head on.

As we will be celebrating the brave young people who fought for our freedom that we enjoy today, we should learn from them and not abuse the freedom that we have today.

Also we shouldn’t forget that the freedom didn’t come easy – people lost their lives for us to have the freedom we have today.

I wish as young people we could celebrate June 16 differently by trying to come up with solutions to our challenges instead of just braaing and abusing alcohol.