‘Social grants aren’t helping our youth’, leader of 1976 Soweto uprising tells government

Against a background of South Africa’s soaring youth unemployment, high rate of drug addiction and rampant crime, a leader of the 16 June, 1976 Soweto uprising, has implored government to rethink its policy on social grants for young people – diverting the funds towards education and empowerment projects instead.

Speaking to The Citizen yesterday at the Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto ahead of the 46th anniversary being commemorated tomorrow, Seth Mazibuko, who led the student march, painted a picture of frustrated youth neglected by government.

“With the high youth unemployment, all government does is to give grants, which go to drugs, booze and more babies instead of education and viable empowerment projects.

“Government should stop that money and let it go towards free education. For this, we owe our young people an apology.

“When 1994 came, all the leaders left our township communities and rushed for [black economic empowerment] tender deals, with some going to parliament to be called ‘the honourable’.

“They left the gap in our townships, with our children becoming leaderless and parentless. “The space they have left is now being occupied by the wrong people, who have introduced drugs and distorted our history.

“Our young people have been destroyed and government, which has failed to engage, has been divorced from their issues,” said Mazibuko.

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With some foreign tourists having descended on Soweto this week, Mazibuko said planned activities would include an early morning visit to the graves of fallen heroes Pieterson, Tsietsi Mashinini and Khotso Seatlholo.

“On Thursday, we shall also be paying respect to the memory of Mbuyisa Makhubu, who was photographed carrying the fatally injured Hector Pieterson.

“There will also be a gala dinner – all done to relive the memories of 1976,” said Mazibuko.

Reflecting on the significance of 16 June, he said: “It is the day that changed the history of this country, shaking apartheid to the core.

“When apartheid became an international issue, with the world taking a position, they did so out of that history – due to what the children did in 1976. “I still say to many people that if there wasn’t a 16 June, 1976, maybe our struggle for freedom would have been delayed longer.

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“For the first time we had young people not only speaking about what is making them uncomfortable but taking action. It is that action which they took in one voice – coming together and fighting the system of apartheid – which changed the course of history.”