Media businesswoman and TV presenter Masechaba Ndlovu said the government needed to introduce South African history in schools from an early age.
Ndlovu was talking at a dialogue between youngsters of local schools and uMkhonto we Sizwe Military Veterans Association members held at Randjiesfontein.
“We need children in schools to learn about what happened during the apartheid era and not just to be taught about Jan van Riebeeck,” she said.
“The youth of 1976 stood up and fought. The world noticed but the real problem started with colonisation. Colonisation made us forget who we are and where we are from. We have forgotten that we are kings and queens. We have forgotten that we have great ancestors that we need to draw strength and courage from.”
Violet Nkuna, who attends Allanridge Secondary School, said they were not taught about what took place during the apartheid years. “We need to be taught more about it in schools so we can know what our parents went through to get to where we are today,” she said.
Ndlovu added that it was also important for the youth to learn more about the apartheid struggle to stop xenophobia in South Africa. “Teachers need to teach our history so youngsters can learn that it took many other African countries to help South Africa achieve democracy. Stop xenophobia, those people raised us when our parents went into exile to train as soldiers to fight apartheid.”
Last month, the Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga issued a ministerial report which stated that history would be a compulsory subject in schools from 2023.
“The history curriculum must include the last bid attempt at the decolonisation of the African mind,” she said.
“We must, without any apology, remove the vestiges of apartheid’s sanitised version of history. We must do so without airbrushing the actual story of the apartheid past, nor must we glorify the liberation movements presenting themselves as an equivalent of moral virtue.”
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Filler: What is the significance of South Africa being taught in schools? Tweet us @MidrandReporter
