Johannesburg – The youth is demotivated to celebrate Youth Day as it continues to battle unemployment and fewer opportunities.
Soweto uprising heroine Sibongile Mkhabela, who was the only female arrested among the Soweto 11 following the uprising in 1976, said she was saddened and disappointed at how the youth spirit has been numbed in recent years.
The now Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund CEO explained that the challenges faced by today’s youth were far too different from what the youth of ’76 were fighting for – but the common ground should be fighting for black consciousness, a notion that seems to be fading.
“What is often missing is the context. The uprising happened during the time of the reawakening of the black consciousness [movement] because we were tired of how the apartheid era treated our black communities, as well as the lame education they offered us.
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“We wanted black freedom first and that is what the youth of today should remember,” said Mkhabela.
Taking a trip down memory lane, Mkhabela said the feisty South African Student Movement meeting on a cold Sunday afternoon of June 13 1976 highlighted what the community needed first and how they could make the country realise that black lives mattered.
She said the idea was “free the mind, free the person”, which was brought up by Steve Biko and Onkgopotse Tiro.
She felt the youth today needed a similar mindset to fight for what they want.
“The policy framework today has grouped certain ages to determine what the youth is, forcing them to think only about the challenges faced with that group.” The country needed to support the youth.
“We are training our youth for market minds whereas we should be training our thinkers. We need black unity.”
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