Reiger Park to honour the youth of 1976
Thursday marks South Africa's 40th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprisings.
To commemorate the student uprising, the House of Nations’ Youth Ministry will, on Thursday, illustrate how a group of school children were brutalised and others killed.
The live demonstration (about 20 minutes) will take place on the corner of Leon Ferreira and Goedehoop streets, in Reiger Park, and residents of the area are invited to attend in their numbers.
“We intend to demonstrate what it looked like to have so many schoolchildren lying on the ground or in the streets.
“People need to be reminded in another way to own the future,” said one of the event organisers, Cyril Reeby.
Speakers during the event will include youngsters from the township.
June is celebrated as Youth Month in the country, with a specific focus on June 16, which is also known as Youth Day.
Youth Month pays tribute to the dozens of schoolchildren who lost their lives on June 16, 1976, while protesting against the compulsory use of Afrikaans as the main teaching language in black schools, whereas white pupils could choose in which language to learn.
The day reportedly began with a march by thousands of students carrying banners and slogans, saying “Down with Afrikaans”.
However, the protest is said to have turned violent when the police and armed forces responded to the protest violently, injuring and killing a number of demonstrators.
Police reportedly claimed that the students began throwing stones and other missiles, before they responded by firing live rounds into the crowd. -@FanieFLK
