Posted on June 22, 2011
"We need young men and women of high moral stamina and integrity, of courage and vision. In short, we need warriors. This means we have to develop a new type of youth, not the pleasure-loving, frivolous, dissolute, light-minded type, but youth of stoical discipline, trained to endure suffering and difficulties." Anton Lembede, 1944
As South Africa celebrates youth month, and as I bow out of that youthful age bracket (14-35 years), I find myself haunted by the words of Anton Lembede, written so many years ago, about the need for a revolutionary morality that was needed amongst the youth so as to liberate the people of South Africa. Has the youth of today become the pleasure-loving, frivolous, dissolute, and light-minded type that he cautioned against in 1944? What happened to the culture of young warriors who in 1976 resolved to face up to the apartheid government over the quality of their education? I would like to argue that, although frivolous tendencies are prevalent, there is some level of activism amongst the youth as demonstrated during the recent local government elections. Although at times misdirected, the service delivery protests that we witnessed across the country are reminiscent of those protests that took place 35 years ago and throughout the 1980s.
The 1975 economic depression that hit South Africa resulted in the apartheid government having no funds to subsidise schools, particularly black schools. The Department of Bantu Education resolved to remove the Standard 6 year from primary schools, meaning that students could progress to the first year of high school, Form 1, without a pass in Standard 6. At the beginning of 1976, when the school year began, 257,505 pupils enrolled in Form 1. These were both students who had passed Standard 6 and those who passed Standard 5, but could not proceed to Standard 6 as it had been scrapped by the government. As there was only space for 38,000 students in Form 1, many students had to remain in primary school, leading to chaos across the country.
The South African Students Movement (SASM) pledged itself to building a national movement of high school students who would work towards addressing the issues affecting students. In doing this, SASM resolved to work with the Black Consciousness (BC) Movement and South African Students Organisation (SASO). The influence of BC philosophies that had been made popular by Steve Biko were revered during this time as not only did they enable an appreciation of the self by black people, they also developed a highly politicised student body in South Africa. So, when the Department of Education announced that Afrikaans was to become a language of instruction at schools, the already politicised student body was outraged at the prospect of being taught in the language they perceived as the language of the oppressor, designed to enslave them in their own country.
At a students' meeting that was held in Orlando on Sunday 13 June, Tsietsi Mashinini, a 19-year-old-leader of a SASM, called for a mass demonstration against the use of Afrikaans. This was to take place on Wednesday, 16 June, and students resolved not to get their parents involved as they feared that the parents would try to stop them. On 16 June, while their parents were at work, they gathered at different points throughout Soweto, the idea was to eventually congregate at Orlando West Secondary School, however, a police squad was sent in to form a line in front of the marching students. When they refused to disperse, police dogs were released, and the police fired teargas. In retaliation, the students threw stones and bottles at the police. The police then started shooting.
The battle between students and police continued into the night with the students burning and destroying all state symbols such as buildings, buses etc. An estimated 20 000 students took part in the protests, and about 176 people were killed. Emergency clinics were overcrowded with injured and bloody children. It is not known how many children sustained bullet wounds because doctors feared that police would target such children. Many cases of bullet wounds were recorded as abscesses. The number of wounded is thus estimated to be over a thousand individuals and it was also found that most of the wounds were in the back, clearly indicating that the majority of the victims were running away.
Many white South African citizens were also outraged at the government's actions in Soweto, and students from white universities marched in various parts of the country in protest to the killing of children. Workers went on strike and riots also broke out in townships in other cities in South Africa. Similar protests in Kagiso and Alexander led to police killing more people, 33 people died in various incidents in Port Elizabeth and 92 people had died in Cape Town during the months that followed . By year end more than 600 people had died. The continued clashes in the country and the shift in political consciousness resulted in acts of active citizenship that extended beyond the black communities. These acts led to economic instability in South Africa, and the devaluation of the rand, which left the apartheid government in a crisis.
Although the Black Consciousness ideas had been essential for the protest action, further struggles against apartheid were carried out under the auspices of the existing liberation movements such as the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan African Congress (PAC). These liberation movements had been banned by the apartheid government, but were fighting underground and operated from outside of South Africa, in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tanzania and Angola etc. After the June 16 massacre, ANC exiles called for international action and more economic sanctions against South Africa and images of the riots spread, shocking millions all over the world. Sam Nzima's photograph of Hector Peterson brought down international criticism upon the Apartheid government, forcing it to consider shifting towards benign forms apartheid.
Fast forward to present day South Africa and you realise that, actually, not much has changed. The streets are still on fire, young people are still throwing stones and the police are still killing them. The recent killing of Andries Tatane and the photograph of his last moments has been likened to that famous image of Hector Peterson's dying moments on June 16, 1976. On the 13th of April 2011, Tatane, an unemployed youth and a leader of the Meqheleng Concerned Citizens (MCC) group, a volunteer-based group with no party affiliations, was killed by police during a service delivery march in Ficksburg. The marchers were outraged that parts of the area have been without water for more than three years. A construction failure on a new development had also led to sewage spilling out onto the streets.
Tatane, a dropout from both the University of Cape Town (UCT), where he pursued media studies; and Wits where he attempted psychology, had no formal training as a teacher but he helped learners in Ficksburg with mathematics. He had launched the 'I Can Learn Academy', where he offered extramural classes, cleaning services, a car wash and a catering operation. A 'Jack-of-all-trades'Â, Tatane always pursued community-based business opportunities, however, at no particular time did he receive support from government youth development initiatives such as the NYDA. Even though he managed to enrol at prestigious institutions such as UCT and WITS, like most black South African students who enrol at such institutions, he could not complete his studies. Today Tatane is revered as 'a beautiful fighter, whose death shall not be in vain'Â on a facebook page dedicated to his memory.
Organisations such as the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) were set up with the view of enhancing and focusing the entire spectrum of national youth development and service programmes. According to its website, the NYDA's focus is on National Youth Service and Social Cohesion; Economic Participation; Research and Development; Governance, Training and Development; Youth Advisory and Information Services and the establishment of a National Youth Fund. During the recent Youth Parliament in Cape Town, representatives of various youth organisations and other young leaders criticised the NYDA for its frivolous spending on events such as the World Communist Youth Front conference that took part early in the year. This event was dismissed by youth representatives as a mere social gathering where millions meant for the youth were spent.
The focus of the NYDA also tends to be on small business development initiatives that are usually not sustainable as a result of a lack of skills. Access to skills development initiatives on the other hand is still a challenge and information in this regard is limited. The NYDA has yet to realise its goals as there is still widespread unemployment amongst the youth in South Africa and the Department of Correctional services has also reported that the majority of its inmates are in fact young people. The upsurge of 'service delivery'Â protests seems to have an increased number of young participants as witnessed during the recent protests in Ermelo. However, the effectiveness of such militant interventions remains to be established.
The methods that were deployed by the youth of 1976 may not be effective in the new dispensation as the political climate is different and the enemy not so clear. We have witnessed the burning of tires and buildings, the throwing of stones and even the killing of protestors by the police. I have spent some time trying to figure out whether the methodologies deployed during protest action are a result of inertia from the past or just a lack of knowledge of any other means of addressing injustice in South Africa. Yes, alternative strategies are few and far between and so we rely on the tested methods that are known to have brought the apartheid government to its knees. Although such strategies were effective in the past and contributed to the liberation of the black masses, are they still relevant in the present?
Perhaps the challenge is with the records that we draw from when we take a peek at the past, as they seem to emphasise the turbulent and violent moments of our past. When the youth draw from this record, as reproduced in various forms of media, it is only these turbulent aspects of youth activism that are available for use in the present. The bigger drama of the struggle against apartheid such as passive resistance, cultural activism and everyday acts of resistance by ordinary people are perhaps marginalised. For example, when we celebrate Youth Day, one never hears of the role played by the Black Consciousness movement and what the BC philosophies entailed. These include a focus on self, the promotion of a sense of pride and reflections on the ability to take charge of one's own destiny.
That message is still relevant today as we see an increased sense of entitlement, with young people waiting around for government to provide jobs, education etc. Government initiatives such as the NYDA and the various Youth Desks within government departments are not doing enough to promote volunteerism, a sense of service and an active participation in civic issues and amongst young people. Who then is going to mentor and encourage young men and women of high moral stamina and integrity, that Lembede said this country needs? The Love Life project, an HIV/Aids prevention initiative is making inroads towards the promotion of volunteerism through the use of new media, however, programmes such as these can be replicated to inform the broader national agenda.
Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya is the Deputy Director of the Archival Platform