Remarks by the Deputy Minister in The Presidency, Mr Buti Manamela, on the occasion of the launch of the Gauteng Schools Drama Festival at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg
Programme Director – Mr Meshack Mavuso
Deputy Minister of Education – Mr Enver Surty
Invited guests
Members of the media
It gives me great pleasure to be with you. Today we are here to launch the Gauteng Schools Drama Festival. Today we are here to signal that the story of June 16, 1976 lives on. It cannot be extinguished. The apartheid government tried to smother it but the story of bravery and courage could not die. It is a story that lives on.
South Africa, in an adolescent metaphor, represents a coming of age with twenty one years of democracy.
If South Africa was a young person today, he or she would have been given the keys to freedom as a rite of passage. He or she would be old enough to vote, old enough to buy booze, old enough to be tried as an adult and old enough to enter into legal agreements.
And while we celebrate twenty two years of freedom, we also commemorate and celebrate epoch events and milestones that contributed to our freedom. One of these events is the 40th anniversary of the Youth Uprising in Soweto on June 16, 1976.
On June 16, we commemorated this historic day with the Deputy President laying a wreath at the Hector Pieterson memorial. The main event took place at the Orlando Stadium with President Zuma as the main speaker. It was a dignified programme exhorting the nation to commemorate the brave students and youth who sacrificed so much for us to have our freedom and democracy today.
It was a commemoration that afforded us the opportunity to give respect to the young heroes and heroines and recognise their place in our history, yesterday, today and forevermore.
The message of June 16, 1976 lives on. In South Africa and in other parts of the world, learners in schools study the Soweto Youth Uprising. They learn about this historic moment in the history of our country and in the fight against oppression and injustice. They draw inspiration from the bravery and courage of the young heroes and heroines of Soweto. They study the messages that the youth of 76 carried. They analyse its meaning and its application for the present and future.
If June 16 lives on, then what are its stories? Who are the storytellers? Is the story valuable? What promise does the story hold for our youth today?
The Schools Drama Festival was borne from the idea that indeed June 16, 1976 lives on.
The Festival is the platform for young people to tell their own stories applying the lessons of June 16, 1976. The Festival is the stage for youth voices to be heard. The Festival is the podium where young people will vocalise their own meaning. The Festival is the pedestal for new content and fresh messages.
The Festival is national, but starting in Gauteng first. Schools and learners will be provided with the opportunity to reflect on the 40th anniversary of June 16, 1976. They will research, investigate and interrogate history. They will apply this to their own lives and communities. They will develop and shape messages consistent with the own lives and experiences. They will then illuminate those messages by developing their own drama production.
Too often the stories of young people are not told by them. In fact these stories are often not our own stories. They have little relevance to our experienced reality. And we consume them daily.
They may have their place in our society, but we need stories that resonates with our lived experiences. Stories that shape and reaffirm our cultural identities. Stories that project the images we can identify with. Stories that poses difficult questions around our development and our future. Stories that forces us as a nation to grapple with. Stories that stimulates debate in our communities, in our workplaces, in our places of worship, in our schools and around our dinner tables.
The outcome of the NYP 2020 is “to produce empowered young people who are able to realise their full potential and understand their roles and responsibilities in making a meaningful contribution to the development of a non-racial, equal, democratic and prosperous South Africa.” This is exactly what the National Schools Drama Festival is attempting to do. The skills development opportunities that the learners will receive will have an empowering effect on them.
Their ability to craft and tell their stories will make a meaningful contribution to our development of a non-racial, equal, democratic and prosperous South Africa.
Drama and theatre are powerful tools for raising consciousness, as we witnessed throughout the last four decades. At a time when Christianity was viewed as the white man’s religion, Woza Albert told us that Christ could indeed come to Soweto in his second coming. When apartheid trampled on the dignity of all black people, Willie Seopolo, the township scholar, rejected the second class status that apartheid gave him in No Good Friday. Nothing But the Truth forced us to deal with the complex issues of political and social reconciliation. And of course Sarafina showed us that the powerful youth voice will not be silenced.
Young people are powerful in raising consciousness. We must remember that it was the youth of the 70’s and 80’s that rose up to fight apartheid when the older generation seemed somewhat resigned to accept their fate.
It is the youth of today that are pricking the conscience of the nation through the call for a decolonised, free education.
Brought together, the power of drama and youth can make a combustive combination. To the schools that will participate in this Festival, we urge you to challenge us through your messages and production. Tell us the prickly truths. Shake our foundations. Make us uncomfortable with your honesty. Show us that the message of June 16, 1976 lives on for this generation and the ones to come.
I wish this project much success. Watch this space.
I thank you
