Johannesburg: While the youth of 1976 left an indelible mark in the fight against apartheid's oppressive education policies, paving the way for equal access to education and opportunities, National Council of Provinces Chairperson Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane has urged today's youth not to become passive members of society.
According to South African Government News Agency, Mtshweni-Tsipane addressed the National Youth Parliament, convened to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Student Uprisings and 30 years of South Africa's transformative Constitution. National Youth Day is celebrated on June 16 to honour the role young people played in the fight against apartheid and the Soweto Uprising of 1976.
"In commemorating this historic occasion, the current generation must properly locate the essence of the 1976 struggle to understand present challenges as part of the long arc of liberation," Mtshweni-Tsipane said. She emphasized that the youth-led uprising of 1976 became the focal point of opposition when other organisations fighting for liberation had been banned and many leaders were in exile, underground, or imprisoned.
Mtshweni-Tsipane called on South Africans to help address contemporary challenges such as transformation and access to quality education as a means to reclaim the present and the future. She urged young people to mobilise a multi-sectoral compact to accelerate youth development and policy implementation, and to reassert the role of a democratic Parliament as the epicentre of lawmaking, oversight, and public participation.
"Let us be inspired by the sacrifices of the youth of 1976, who showed that the future of South Africa depends on the determination of its young people. Passivity, drug abuse, and alcohol abuse do not build nations," she said. The Chairperson encouraged young people to reclaim democracy by registering to vote and deciding the kind of country and world in which they wish to live.
Mtshweni-Tsipane stressed that the struggle is not yet over. It has moved from the streets of communities to different sites of contestation in universities, industries, and other aspects of social life. She invited participants in the Youth Parliament to contribute meaningfully towards creating renewed ways of life through an oversight agenda that affirms freedoms, even under conditions of scarcity and constraint.
She concluded by highlighting the importance of Parliament as a theatre of contestation, ideas, and oversight, and a necessity in developing a transformative strategy for social change, giving credence to all voices, especially those of the marginalised, the unemployed, and poor youth.