Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Youth to march in honour of slain seven
GUGULETHU youth and backyard dwellers will march through the streets tomorrow in commemoration of 33 years of the death of the seven youth who were killed by apartheid police.
The march is to “remind people of the courageous activists who died brutally at the hands of the police, while also highlighting the plight of people of Gugulethu today”, explained Phindile Nazo, 28.
The UWC graduate said that among the many issues plaguing the community, housing continued to be one of the biggest.
“Last year we shut down the area, invaded every vacant piece of land and made our voices heard. We cannot continue to live cramped in these fourroomed houses where some sleep on the living room floor and others even in the kitchen,” said Nazo.
“We have decided to hang on the coattails of these heroes and fight for the liberation of our people through basic housing. We have been neglected by the government for far too long.
“People always assume that people born in Gugulethu don’t want to leave home, but that is not the case,” he added.
Nazo also said councillors would march along with representatives from the families of the seven activists.
On March 3, 1986, seven men aged 16 to 23 were gunned down by riot police in a plan that had been in the works for some time.
According to Gugulethu residents,
Last year we shut down the area, invaded every vacant piece of land and made our voices heard
Phindile Nazo
UWC graduate
the seven “were not battle-hardened soldiers”. They were youth activists, and members of the Cape Youth Congress and uMkhonto weSizwe.
In a tribute to the men, Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform Mcebisi Skwatsha wrote: “The Gugulethu seven were martyrs; heroes of our liberation struggle. As we prepared to bury them, under the aegis of the UDF, the apartheid regime ran its usual interference to restrict people who’d be allowed to attend the funeral. They failed dismally.
“On the following Saturday no less than 30 000 people gathered at the NY49 stadium to bury their heroes,” he wrote.
Skwatsha also detailed the harrowing events of the fateful Monday morning.
“Seven young freedom fighters were lured into a trap by police and murdered in cold blood in the street. Brutally butchered. Photographs of police with firearms standing and smiling above the bodies of their victims, like hunters standing over their trophies, revealed the state of mind of our oppressor,” he wrote.
The march will start at the end of NY1 nearest to Lansdowne Road and proceed to the other end of NY1.
There will also be a candle-light ceremony and speeches.