Youth discuss burning issues

GRAFT, UNEMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION

Participants recall Soweto uprising and bravery of pupils in bringing change.

Freedom Park in Pretoria was the setting for heated discussions among the youth about corruption, unemployment and education to mark the end of Youth Month yesterday.

The National Heritage Council of South Africa and the Resistance Liberation Heritage Route Project hosted the youth dialogue with five pupils from schools in Soweto on a panel presenting thought-provoking conversations on SA’s heritage, today’s youth culture and how far we have come since the 1976 Soweto uprising.

The pupils represented Moletsane

High School, Meadowlands High School and Morris Isaacson High School.

National Heritage Council chair Edgar Neluvhalani said he was eight years old when the protests started. “We were writing June examinations when senior pupils from secondary schools in the area banged on the door.

“They looked in the class and saw young boys and girls and they walked away shouting ‘black power’,” he said.

Neluvhalani said after school that day everything changed. “Later that evening there was gunfire and smoke everywhere. And from that day on for many months we couldn’t go to school.”

Neluvhalani said he saw the bravery of the pupils resisting the apartheid regime. “I saw pupils using dustbins as shields against bullets. You must know your opinions are valued and are important even at your age. Just like the opinions of pupils in 1976 were important and are now recognised,” he added.

Anza Gongo from Meadowlands High School spoke about the role the youth played in liberating South Africa from the apartheid regime, while her peer Nkateko Makama spoke about a solution to unemployment.

Makama encouraged his peers not to complain about high unemployment, but to stand up and be part of the solution.

Mosa Ross from Moletsane High School said education was the most powerful tool to change the future.

Mene Masonwabe from Morris Isaacson said schools were doing enough. “In public schools, the teachers are doing everything in their power to help pupils obtain a better future. The question is, are our leaders doing enough?”

Guest speaker former Miss SA Ntandoyenkosi Kunene discussed children’s education and development. –