A walk down memory lane
ONE of the leaders of the Soweto uprising on June 16, 1976, Mathakha Mashau of Khalavha village near Thohoyandou says he is disheartened to see young people today being addicted to drugs and infected with HIV/aids.
LIMPOPO – ONE of the leaders of the Soweto uprising on June 16, 1976, Mathakha Mashau of Khalavha village near Thohoyandou says he is disheartened to see young people today being addicted to drugs and infected with HIV/aids.
Mashau (57) still recalls his heydays when he was one of the most wanted students by the then regime, along with the likes of student leaders, Tsietsi Mashinini, Kgotso Sehlogo and Sechaba Daniel Motsitsi.
“I was 18 years old and in gr. 9 at Vuwani Secondary School in Midway, Gauteng, but Mashinini and the rest were at Morris Isaacson High School.
“The Apartheid regime was enforcing Afrikaans to be a medium of instruction in schools. They wanted us to study all the subject in Afrikaans and we refused, hence we were confronted by the police.
“We staged a peaceful march against government, but the police started to shoot.
“Hector Peterson was still in primary school and he was not part of the march.
“Most of the students died in police cells after being assaulted by the police. Mashinini was the first on the list of the most wanted and we hid him in a coal delivery truck and he fled to Botswana. When Mashinini fled, the police searched for Sehlogo, Motsitsi and other leaders,” he said.
“When you see students receive financial help from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and help from the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), they are the fruits of June 16, 1976. When my parents in Venda saw my photo in the newspapers, they were shocked.
“The following year they took me back to the former Venda homeland to attend school there. It was not easy for the principals to accept me,” he said.
Mashau now runs his own business in Khalavha village.
He said there were a lot of opportunities nowadays.
“I encourage young people to focus on their education. There are a lot of jobs in the mining industy and other companies,” he said.
“My problem is that when people celebrate June 16, they ignore us. We won the fight against the Apartheid regime without guns. I was deeply touched when I heard of Mashinini’s death.
“Our democratic government should help trace those who went missing in 1976 and if they died outside of the country, their remains should be reburied in South Africa.”
