Our fight must continue

JUNE 16 has slowly dawned upon us and as an overworked matric pupil, I’ve marked this as a day off, just as every other South African teenager should.

But it’s more than just a day to catch up on some TV series and laze around, it’s Youth Day – a day to commemorate and memorialise the Soweto Uprising.

I know this because I’m a history pupil and this is part of my syllabus, but ask the majority of the teenagers today what Youth Day is and they could not care less.

And that is our problem: we are the careless youth, we blatantly ignore the issues that are faced every day in our country because we hide behind social media and selfies.

We demand freedom and the right to roam freely and carelessly, yet we forget that freedom was not loosely given to the youth of 1976. Lives were lost and a struggle was endured to earn that freedom – but the only struggle we know is the data struggle.

Like the youth of 1976, we need to find a cause, our very own purpose. They found that cause and became a part of history and just as they did, I would love nothing more than to leave a legacy behind for the youth of 2050.

But I cannot do this alone, I rely on my classmates and peers to take responsibility for the future of our coun- try and be the change that it desperately needs.

Our country has turned 21 and it has not yet truly embraced the true essence of democracy. Our people are still bound in chains from the past and inequality is still rife in our streets, but as “born-frees”, our freedom comes with a price and a responsibility.

We should not walk on soil stained with blood from the struggle and take it in vain. We are the generation born into change that was unthinkable to our ancestors, and peace that was an unobtainable dream to our greatgrandparents.

Although we are “free” we are still faced with our own battles to fight, but every generation has a mission and I’m pretty certain this generation’s purpose is more than a great online presence.

Our purpose is to continue the legacy and reciprocate the knowledge from the celebrated youth of 1976.

So what is our legacy? What is our fight?

We must find our “silver lining”, our north star and use that not to serve ourselves, but to humbly serve humanity. We are the modern day freedom fighters and heroes, and our greatest power is our youth.