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The youth are not lost: The untold truth behind June 16, 1976
Obbey Mabena says today's youth are misjudged; they have been left in the dark by those who survived the struggle.
Silence from elders about what happened in exile has left young people without a clear understanding of their inheritance.
Youth Day must be about truth-telling, not just remembering the past, but confronting what was never finished.
'We are celebrating the youth that fought for us years ago when we didn't have opportunities to education as South Africans,' says Portia Mokoena, a university student reflecting on the meaning of Youth Day.
Someone had to die; blood had to be spilt so that we have what we have today.
It's a powerful reminder that for her, 16 June is not just about the past. It is a day that still resonates with the present, a mirror held up to what has changed, and what has not.
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Bongiwe Simelane, another young South African, puts it simply, 'It was never easy. It's still not easy now. And it will never be easy. But if we keep pushing through as a unit, we can change things.'
She speaks with clarity and urgency. Despite having some freedoms, she believes young people today are scattered, disillusioned and struggling to unify in the same way the youth of 1976 did. 'They had a clear cause. They stood together. We need that now more than ever.'
Then there is the question of relevance. What good is education if it does not translate to employment? Ridwaan Patel asks a pointed question,
What will you do by studying HR? Where do you go to work with it?
Ridwaan Patel
His frustration is sharp. 'Everyone pushes university, but what about artisans? We need plumbers, electricians and builders. Not everyone has to be a doctor or lawyer.'
Their comments come at a time when the meaning of Youth Day is once again under scrutiny. Almost 50 years after schoolchildren marched through the streets of Soweto demanding the right to be taught in their own language, many young South Africans feel they are still waiting for the freedom that was promised to them.
For Obbey Mabena, one of the young people who went into exile in 1976, the problem is not that today's youth are lost, it is that they have not been told the truth.
'When I left for exile, I left on behalf of our people,' says Mabena. 'That being the case, on our return, it was incumbent on us to go back to the people and explain to them what happened after we had left and how we came to be where we were.'
That being the case, on our return, it was incumbent on us to go back to the people and explain to them what happened after we had left and how we came to be where we were.
But he says that reckoning never really happened.
We are very economical with exactly what happened. When we tell our story, we have to tell it once and for all. It was not all hunky-dory. It was very tough.
Without that full account, Mabena argues, it becomes easy to misjudge today's youth.
'You hear irresponsible people saying, 'Ah, the youth of today is useless'. Nothing could be more nonsensical. They are our own offspring. If they are useless, it means we are useless because we failed to make them useful.'
Mabena reflects on how deeply the apartheid system sabotaged education, using language not to empower, but to control. The introduction of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction was not the beginning, he says, but part of a broader strategy to deny black children access to the kind of knowledge that builds power.
'Under Bantu Education, even if you got straight A's in every subject, if you failed your mother tongue, you were forced to repeat the year. That's how much emphasis they placed on their system. But at the time, we didn't see it. We thought they were making us stupid on purpose. We didn't appreciate the value of mother tongue instruction because we were brainwashed into thinking that English is dignity.'
The picture painted by both the youth and veterans like Mabena is one of broken continuity, a country still caught between memory and progress. Youth Day has become a symbol of victory, but also of unfulfilled promises. Access to quality education, funding, safety and dignity remains out of reach for too many.
And yet, the spirit of the '76 generation lingers, not in perfect unity or clarity, but in the small acts of questioning and resistance taking place every day.
From Fees Must Fall to campaigns against gender-based violence, unemployment and inequality, South Africa's youth are still fighting. Their weapons are different, such as social media, protest, art and dialogue, but their demands echo the same call for justice. As Mabena puts it,
'We must tell our people what happened. That will help our youth not to be useless because they'll be moving from a very concrete base of what happened.'
Youth Day is not about nostalgia. It is a warning and a responsibility. As long as truth remains withheld and dignity delayed, South Africa's young people will continue to ask and act in search of something better.
