M George: June 16 Commemoration

16 June 2006

Programme Director
Ambassadors and Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Mrs McHane
The American Film Institute, Silverdocks and Discovery
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

I feel privileged and honoured to have this opportunity to share an evening
with you here at the American Film Institute (AFI)/Silverdocks Film Festival,
in commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of South Africa’s 1976 Soweto
Uprising.

These events, starting on the 16 June 1976, spread like a wild fire across
the width and breadth of South Africa capturing the attention and imagination
of the world. June 16 was thereafter destined to be an important part of the
Story of South Africa.

The famous uprising of 1976 started in a Black residential area of
Johannesburg called the South Western Townships, abbreviated to the now famous
name, Soweto.

This uprising came as defiance to the attempts by the racist regime of South
Africa to enforce a White minority language, Afrikaans, and a generally
inferior education, ‘Bantu education’, on the majority of black high school
learners across the country.

The highly politicised young generation of 1976 could not contain their
frustration and anger in the face of the provocation by the regime. It was
clear that the regime had overplayed its card this time.

On 16 June 1976, approximately 20 000 young learners assembled at various
points throughout Soweto. They then set off on a march to meet at Orlando West
Secondary School, whose junior class learners were in fact the first to boycott
Afrikaans classes.

Following in the tradition of South African protest politics, the march was
intended to be peaceful. However, in true apartheid fashion, the regime’s state
security machinery, reminiscent of the brutal reprisals of Sharpeville
Uprisings of 1960, were provocative and brutal in their response. To this day
the image of the young Mbuyisa Makhubu carrying the crumpled dead body of 13
year old Hector Petersen with his sister running and crying alongside has come
to symbolise the South African struggle against apartheid in general, and the
Soweto Uprisings, in particular.

Unlike Sharpeville, the police brutality of the day was to spark an uprising
that was to spread like wild fire on the dry winter veld. The events that
started in Soweto were to spread uncontrollably to other towns on the
Witwatersrand, to Pretoria, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town and even to
some rural villages throughout the country.

The regime was caught by surprise by the intensity and spread of the revolt,
which continued for the rest of 1976 and was to be repeated the following year
when June 16 commemoration services were held.

This time, the regime responded swiftly and equally brutal by banning a
number of newspapers, banishing many community activists and jailing many
others, Steve Biko was to be murdered in custody a few months later.

Programme Director

There is no doubt that the Uprisings of 1976 were to reshape the political
struggle across South Africa. Young Hector Petersen became an international
symbol of the brutality of apartheid and Soweto the symbol of resistance to
oppression.

Many young people died in 1976 in their attempt to resist oppression. Many
were forced by prevailing events to leave the country. Some of those who went
into exile were to swell the ranks of the liberation movement whilst many
others who remained inside the country could not continue with their education
due to the volatile environment. Some of these young people were never to
recover from the effects of the events and were to be referred to as the ‘Lost
Generation’. They all, however, deserve to be honoured for their courage in
having assisted to bring about a free and democratic South Africa.

There is no doubt that the uprising was part of a long history of the
struggle of the people of South Africa for liberation. It was a link in a chain
that started with the Khoisan people in Western Cape and later followed through
by the struggles of the other African tribes throughout South Africa. These
earlier struggles were to produce heroes like Autshomato, Moshoeshoe, Makhado,
Ngungunyane, Mzilikazi, Hintsa, Cetshwayo, Sekhukhune, Shaka and many others.
The last of these “ancient” heroes, who fought against the evils of colonialism
and suppression, was to be Bhambata ka Mancinza who staged an uprising and was
captured and killed by the colonial forces in 1906. His contribution was
recognised by our country last Sunday when he was posthumously re-inaugurated
as the Chief of the Zondi clan by President Mbeki.

After Bhambata, the African national Congress was formed in 1912. The
African National Congress (ANC) was to change the course of the struggle in
line with the changed political climate.

Programme Director

Although the Soweto led uprisings were unprecedented in their scale of focus
by the youth in fighting for liberation, the idea of youth for liberation has a
rich history in the South African political struggle.

Writing about "The Congress Youth League" in a South African newspaper of
the time, the 'Bantu World' of 18 January 1947, an icon of the South African
struggle and first president of the Congress Youth League, Anton Lembede,
said:

"The decision of the African National Congress (ANC) about three years ago,
to form a youth league under Congress, was a very progressive step indeed. It
is especially necessary that young people be imbued and indoctrinated with the
Congress spirit based on African nationalism the ideology underlying our
struggle for national liberation”.

"It is an incontrovertible and unchallengeable fact that the leaders of
tomorrow will be recruited from the youth of today. The League is the product
and child of Congress and has no alternative but to carry out the policy and
programme of the Mother Body. According to the Youth League's Manifesto, a true
leader must be the embodiment or incarnation of the wishes and aspirations of
the masses."

The role of the youth in the regeneration and rejuvenation of liberation
organisations was to be crucial to all in the history of the struggle. It was
this very sub-culture of the youth that brought young and talented leaders like
Nelson Mandela and the late Oliver Tambo to the fore.

In his 1994 address on Youth Day as the first democratically elected
President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela said, “The brave young people of that
generation (1976 generation) are today eminent premiers, ministers and members
of national and provincial parliaments. They are taking their rightful place in
the ranks of the new South African National Defence Force and other
institutions of state and civil society.

Programme Director

What Nelson Mandela was referring to was the role that the youth had played
not only during the liberation struggle, but also for taking the philosophy and
direction of the struggle to their communities. This was a struggle for better
and equitable education and the struggle for social and economic
liberation.

Today the Government of South Africa is still looking to students and the
youth in general to continue to inspire and align themselves with the broader
challenges of current political direction. These include the challenges of
providing education for all, eradicating poverty and providing for sustainable
job creation. President Mbeki has taken on the baton of youth development
through focused programmes to ensure that our hard won freedom is not
compromised by failure to care for the coming generations.

In his 2006 State of the Nation address, President Mbeki made reference to
an “Age of Hope” in South Africa. For the youth this is to mean that the
battlefront has somewhat shifted and we, therefore, no longer commemorate the
uprisings of 1976 but rather celebrate June 16th as ‘Youth Day’ and the month
of June as ‘Youth Month’.

In this regard, South Africa’s National Youth Commission, which is the
institution responsible for youth development in our country, has launched a
series of campaigns under the theme: “Deepening Youth Participation to Fight
Poverty and Create Jobs”. This theme sets the tone for what appears to be a
mammoth task to deepen the youth’s participation in the progress and
development of our democracy.

The Youth Commission seeks to provide a long-term and effective means of
reconstructing South African society whilst simultaneously educating, training
and skilling the youth. Like any developing or developed country South Africa
has its fair share of social ills of which a large percentage is attributed to
the youth. We are working very hard to ensure we do not lose another
generation.

Programme Director

It is clear that the ‘Class of 76’ took their rightful place in South
Africa, building the foundations of a new nation and creating a better life for
all. The question now is what will history say about the current generation of
South African youth, referred to by many as the ‘Kwaito Generation’, in
reference to a special brand of music that is a sort of rap, house, hip-hop and
reggae combination, representing a single cultural milieu among South African
youth and is a fertile expression of a truly South African, non-racial
culture.

This is the music behind the movie, Tsotsi, which was South Africa’s recent
success at the Academy Awards for best Foreign Film. In this regard my
generation of political leaders in South Africa are aware that we have to be
flexible enough to give room to new expressions of culture and solidarity so
that our ‘young lions’ can prepare to take the baton of leadership.

The so-called Kwaito generation, while obviously not as politicised as the
youth of the 1970s and 1980s, is highly conscious of its identity as a people
living in a society that is still faced with the challenges of racism,
unemployment an poverty. It, however, remains generally committed to the goal
of progressive transformation in South Africa.

In an international context where politics ignores and excludes the youth,
new generations have sought other means to express energy and idealism. This
has led to a renaissance of youth culture in South Africa not witnessed since
the days of the Cultural Revolution in the historic cultural centres such as
Sophiatown in Johannesburg, Lady Selborne in Pretoria, Umkhumbane in Durban and
District Six in Cape Town.

Anyone familiar with the lyrics and symbolism of the emerging black youth
culture in South Africa cannot but be struck by the extent to which politics of
the liberation struggle and the discourse of emancipation have been reinvented
by the new generation. The youth is giving new meaning to the politics of their
mothers and fathers and are creating a new politics of human liberation that is
entirely appropriate to the democratic order.

In a country where the challenge is fundamentally a developmental one,
Kwaito music is more than just the political social expression of our youth, it
also is an embodiment of the entrepreneurial avenues that the youth is able to
follow through artistic and creative means.

Most South Africans are extremely proud of the achievement of Tsotsi, for it
showcases the talents of our youth that demonstrates that they can compete with
the best in the world. Through the liberation that was brought about by the
contribution of the youth of 1976, young South Africans today from all walks of
life have started to express themselves artistically through literature,
poetry, song, dance and theatre, thus creating new and innovative opportunities
for themselves.

Thirty years on from the international media spotlight on the Soweto 1976
Uprising, the film, Tsotsi, has put the current cultural revolution of South
Africa’s youth back in the eyes of the world.

Programme Director

In conclusion

I want to express my gratitude that tonight, as South Africans; we are
celebrating in partnership with the American Film Institute, Silverdocks, and
Discovery one of our biggest anniversaries.

I understand that this year, the AFI/ Silverdocks has chosen South Africa as
the country on which their week-long film festival has focused and that they
will be screening short films and documentaries filmed by South Africans.

I am so pleased that the AFI/ Silverdocks have created this platform for
South Africans to once again tell their story.

I thank you all.

Issued by: Department of Defence
16 June 2006