The event and public holiday of youth day was commemorated on 16th June for the 1976 Youth protests against apartheid educational policies in Soweto. The students’ mass demonstrations had at the basis of their platform the issue of education. They rejected the white minority regime’s policy of educating them in an inferior system designed to limit their opportunities and determine their future before they had even reached the age of maturity.
Today, Youth Day should focus our attention on a different challenge: building a country that works for its young people. This year’s Youth Month theme is “Skills for a Changing World – Empowering Youth for Meaningful Economic Participation.” That theme speaks to an uncomfortable truth. South Africa’s greatest challenge is no longer political liberation. It is economic inclusion. (President Cyril) Ramaphosa has an opportunity to place that challenge at the centre of the national conversation. For too long, June 16 has been treated mainly as a day of remembrance. There is nothing wrong with remembering Hector Pieterson and the bravery of the Soweto generation. A nation must honour those who paid the highest price for freedom. But remembrance is not enough. We spend too much time looking back and too little time asking whether today’s young people are receiving the education, skills and opportunities that the youth of 1976 died for.
Education is the key to closing the ever-widening chasm known as poverty that separates the poor from the rich. The focus should be on teaching skills that empower the youth. Improving the youth’s interest in business and skills training should be the top priority of the Department of Education and the Presidency in Pretoria. This could go a long way to combat and alleviate poverty. If South Africa wants to advance its position both in Africa and across the world as well as be a centre of opportunity now is the time for the President to seize the moment. Pretoria has to take the implications of Youth Day 16th of June 2026 and accelerate the labour for change. The focus should be on improving support for local businesses. The sacrifice of those who were martyred in Soweto in 1976 should not be in vain. The focus should be on improving the growth of Gross Domestic Profit (GDP) that is the national economy.
Schools, universities, youth organisations, businesses and government departments should use Youth Day to drive national campaigns around literacy, mathematics, coding, entrepreneurship, school safety, infrastructure and employment. Imagine if young South Africans from every community marched together for better schools, safer communities and more jobs. That would honour the spirit of 1976 better than another round of political point-scoring.
Government across national, provincial and local has a responsibility to bring public education to the doorstep of every child – the same can be said of housing, food and other opportunities. In terms of the institutionalization of transparency and accountability, housing and basic education are the ultimate prizes to improve the standard of living in South Africa. The government has to put its act back together to improve the nation’s overall livelihoods.
It will largely depend on what type of legacy President Ramaphosa wants to leave for his presidency in regard to future generations.
Article written by:
Yacoob Cassim
Journalist at Radio Al Ansaar
