JOHANNESBURG — Approximately 10,000 Black African students marched in the streets of Soweto in South Africa on June 16, 1976, protesting against  discriminatory educational laws imposed on them by the apartheid government.

This followed a written decree issued by J.G. Erasmus, the regional director from the apartheid government’s Regional Circular Bantu Education in the Northern Transvaal Region to the township school principals. The decree, signed in 1974, established Afrikaans and English as the languages  of instruction for African students in standard five through form five, roughly equivalent to 7th-12th grade.

This year marks the 46th anniversary of the June 16 Soweto uprising. In honor of the youth of 1976 for their role against the apartheid struggle, South Africans from all walks of life — including government, churches, businesses and schools and different racial and ethnic groups — will celebrate the annual Youth Month. According to the government, this year’s National Youth Day and Youth Month is under the theme “The Year of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke: Growing youth employment for an inclusive and transformed society.”

Some churches and religious organizations have adopted the government’s theme in their events and preaching. To highlight the importance of education, it has become a norm for the older generation to go to work or attend church services and business meetings wearing school uniforms. This significant event has drawn the world’s attention to South Africa since 1976.

How African teachers and students were racially prejudiced

The Bantu Education laws were imposed in all schools in the townships where the majority of Africans studied. The government’s key declaration was for African teachers to educate African students in mathematics, arithmetic and social studies in Afrikaans.

This declaration favored the White South Africans since Afrikaans and English were their native languages; whereas African teachers mostly did not understand Afrikaans. Similarly, African students also did not speak Afrikaans and referred to it as “the language of the oppressor.”  Therefore, it was a scenario of the blind leading the blind.

While imposing what the African students deemed as unfair educational laws, the deputy minister of Bantu Education at the time, Punt Janson, was quoted saying that he did not consult “the African people on the language issue.”

“And I'm not going to,” Janson said. “An African might find that ‘the big boss’ only spoke Afrikaans or only spoke English. It would be to his advantage to know both languages."

Another quote from apartheid government officials read as follows: “If students are not happy, they should stay away from school since attendance is not compulsory for Africans.”

Contributing factors that triggered the Soweto youth uprising

Mamokgethi Phakeng — vice chancellor of the University of Cape Town, mathematics professor, and first African woman in South Africa to obtain a doctorate in mathematics in 2002 — has recently published an article arguing for multilingualism in South African schools, discussing the Soweto uprising.

Phakeng said the youth uprising followed decades of government policy restrictions, beginning in 1954, when Hendrik Verwoerd, the former minister of education, told the Senate there was no reason to teach mathematics to African people.  Verwoerd said it would make them dissatisfied with their position in life, which was to serve White people. Twenty years later, the Bantu Education Act’s new Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974 forced secondary schools to use Afrikaans as the language of instruction.

“The learners were not just resisting being taught in the language of the oppressor; they also understood that this step would limit their ability to achieve academically,” Phakeng wrote. “Deeply discriminatory policies such as this ended with the fall of Apartheid.”

In 1997, South Africa’s first democratically elected government announced a new Language in Education policy that recognized 11 official languages and encouraged multilingualism. Within this policy, learners — or rather, their parents — must choose the preferred language of learning upon admission to a school. Where the language they choose is not available, parents can apply to the provincial education department to provide instruction. Schools also have to choose a language for learning and teaching mathematics, and school governing bodies are required to state explicitly their plan to promote multilingualism.

The decree by the apartheid government to teach mathematics, arithmetic and social studies in Afrikaans had angered students across the country. In their quest to fight for better education, they mobilized fellow students from different schools and provinces to form student movements. The purpose was to fight against the government’s unfair educational laws.

As a result, the youth took to the streets of Soweto to protest the imposed education policy. Police drove into the townships in Hippos, South African armored personnel carriers that were popularly known as “yellow mellows” in the townships. They unleashed live bullets and teargas on the students. This led to the massacre of hundreds of students who were shot and killed by the apartheid police. Many were left dead on the streets and others injured. Others were incarcerated. In their fight for better education and in protest about the souls of the African youth killed by the apartheid police, they burned tires on the streets to block vehicles from entering the townships. Fearing for their lives, some fled the country and went to exile. Others migrated from one province to the other for protection.

After the student protests, the government bowed down to the demands of the youth to not utilize Afrikaans as the main language in schools.

Challenges faced by the youth under the democratic government

The struggle for better education by the youth of 1976 has partially been won.  Under the democratic ruling government, the “born frees” — youth born after democracy — are facing a different struggle of unemployment. The current population of South Africa is 60.7 million, and according to Statistics South Africa, over 10 million are aged 15 to 24. Unfortunately, a majority of the youth in South Africa are unemployed. According to recent statistics released by the Stats SA on unemployment, South Africa’s youth continue to bear the burden of unemployment.

“Youth in South Africa continue to be disadvantaged in the labor market with an unemployment rate higher than the national average,” reports Stats SA. According to the Quarterly Labor Force Survey, for the first quarter of 2022, the unemployment rate was 63.9% for those aged 15-24 and 42.1% for those aged 25-34 years, while the current official national rate stands at 34.5%.

Although the graduate unemployment rate remains relatively low in South Africa compared to those of other educational levels, unemployment among the youth continues to be a burden, regardless of educational attainment. “Year on year, the unemployment rate among young graduates (aged 15-24 years) declined from 40.3% to 32.6%, while it increased by 6.9 percentage points to 22.4% for those aged 25-34 years in Q1: 2022,” elaborated Stats SA. The report added that of the 10 million youth in South Africa, only 2.5 million were in the labor force, either employed or unemployed.

“Youth unemployment currently sits at around 70% in SA, the highest in decades, and this (is) under a government elected after apartheid,” said Wayne Thring, senior pastor at the Kingdom Connect Ministries in Pinetown. “Poverty, inequality and unemployment have all increased to unacceptable levels in South Africa, post-democracy in 1994. The economic and labor policies of the ruling party have failed the youth of South Africa, as they have resulted in massive unemployment in the country. This is a ticking time bomb and, unless dealt with, will have catastrophic consequences.”

According to the minister from the KwaZulu-Natal province, there are quite a few contributing factors to the high rate of youth unemployment that may vary among different communities, depending on the demographics. “One of the factors that I can think of is low skill levels and a lack of mentorship,” Thring said. “Many of the unemployed youth are unemployed due to a lack of skills and mentorship programs. Additionally, most unemployed youths are unemployable due to a skills deficit as well as poor government labor policies.”

African Christian Democratic Party youth lawyer Mr. Bongani Luthuli, views high unemployment as the failure of the ruling party, African National Congress, to link business needs with the school curriculum.

“The lowering of education standards and expected outcomes has rendered the curriculum to be unfit for purpose,” Luthuli said. “The curriculum must be entrepreneurial and geared toward preparing the youth” to take on corporate roles and also “to open up their businesses by taking advantage of 4IR (Fourth Industrial Revolution) and technological advances. The ACDP did articulate this aspect in the 2019 Manifesto and identified the scourge as the first giant. The ACDP proposes reinstating the apprenticeship model, expanding the employment tax incentive for businesses and encouraging businesses to engage young people on paid internships.”

The co-ordinator of the Children and Youth Unit, from the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, the Rev. Phezile Koekoe, said that youth unemployment has always been very high in South Africa — around 40% due to career choices in universities, which are not in demand in the society. Many young people don’t choose, technical courses but instead choose courses that would lead them to the mainstream line of work, which is very scarce in the country. Also, the policy of enforcement of work experience before one is employed continues to contribute to high rates of unemployment. Koekoe elaborated that the other factors impacting the high rate of unemployment are “overpopulation with limited opportunities, high rate of drop out in schools, making illiteracy to be too high, and closure of many industrial factories due to economic collapse.”

Apart from unemployment, Thring said other issues that are affecting the South African youth are poverty, drugs, alcohol addiction, sexual promiscuity, mental issues resulting in suicide and depression, and many more. Luthuli added that drug abuse and teenage pregnancy are among the contemporary struggles linked to the high rate of youth unemployment.

“We are faced with economic inequalities, whereby only a limited number of young people have access to economic opportunities,” Koekoe said. Koekoe explained that many are still trapped in poverty and unemployment because they struggle to have access to free education at tertiary institutions, as the government’s funding policy is inaccessible to many South African youth. He pointed to other social ills, such as gender-based violence and femicide as negatively affecting young people.

“We are living in unsafe communities,” Koekoe said. “Every day, young people are raped, human trafficked, and murdered.”

Church strategies toward addressing youth unemployment

To curb the high rate of youth unemployment in his community, Koekoe explained that the Methodist Church of Southern Africa gives funding to youngsters to start businesses.

“We have youth economic programs, which assist youth with capital funding to start small business companies. We raise money internally and externally to sustain our youth. We have young people who have started printing and digital technology companies, food catering companies and cleaning services companies. Our funding is limited to R15,000 (approximately $934). But due to COVID-19, our financial purse ran dry, so we are raising funds again to sustain it.” 

Koekoe said the Methodist Church of Southern Africa also has a COVID-19 relief fund for business rescue and relief, for businesses that have been negatively affected by the pandemic and for people seeking opportunities to start food garden projects for food security,” Koekoe said. 

Thring said Kingdom Connect Ministries has partnered with the Church Alliance for Social Transformation, a nonprofit organization that has partnered with churches to work within communities through the church. CAST also provides business courses and has other youth programs running, such as "Boys to Men," teaching young men the path to success. It hosts a similar program for girls.

“We have our very own youth who are struggling for employment within the local church,” he said. Some of the youth volunteer through CAST within the local community and church. They gain skills and experience that help them obtain jobs. “The church in South Africa has done a great deal to address the challenges of the youth,” Thring said. “The problem is that not many are aware of the many programs run by different churches. Churches run entrepreneurship courses and skills development courses, house interns, establish databases of unemployed youth, assist with extra educational or bridging classes, and some provide bursaries to deserving students. Can more be done by the church? Absolutely.”

Was the struggle against educational injustices in vain?

Despite the high unemployment rate, Thring said the current situation in the country does not mean the youth of 1976 fought in vain:

“The youth of 1976 helped usher in freedom and liberty that the majority of South Africans enjoy. Yes, the youth of South Africa now have equal access to education, but whether it is "better" is debatable. Hundreds of thousands of children drop out of school in the 12-year cycle, and our public schools, our grade 4-6's are producing the poorest results in literacy and numeracy, despite the SA Education Department spending the most per capita in Africa.”

Koekoe also believes that the struggle that the youth of 1976 fought against was not in vain. “As racism is the worst form of discrimination, overcoming it at least allows every human being to express their thoughts and opinions without fear of prejudice based on the color of their skin,” Koekoe said.

Luthuli, on the other hand, cast blame on the government leaders of South Africa for failing recent generations of young people. “Sadly, the educational injustices were not won by the 1976 generation — they continue to this day under the guise of a democratically elected government that does not prioritize education for the previously disadvantaged child,” he said. “Children continue to attend school hungry. They study under trees and get an inferior education.”

Luthuli said the activism of the ACDP “has been used as mere tokenism, and substantive change is not happening.” While he doesn’t believe the 1976 struggle was in vain, he believes the true struggle continues.

“Only children who belong to a certain class get a better education, while the majority continue to get an inferior education,” Luthuli said. “Those fortunate to access institutions of higher education drop out for various reasons about socioeconomics, and those who graduate have few opportunities due to the cataclysmic state of the economy caused by corruption and cronyism on the part of the ruling party. The state as the biggest employer does not hire talented and deserving youth. … Jobs are reserved and are accessible through partisanship. The country is experiencing a lot of brain drain due to these and a myriad of other factors.”

What should be done to address these issues?

Asked what he believes could be done to address these challenges that the youth are facing, Thring said, “We need to engage with our youth more, have honest dialogues, truly listen or hear them out. Take ownership of our role with regards to these high stats of youth unemployment and give them more opportunities and responsibilities. To have more mentorship programs — many youths are not being mentored and do not have suitable role models within our society.”

Koekoe stressed that South Africa is still struggling with issues of socioeconomic and political inequality. Many people are still in the margins and periphery, excluded from equitable distribution. “Equality and justice are still pie in the sky in our country,” Koekoe said. “Until we create equal opportunities for everyone — we will then say we have realized our freedom — now we are politically free but socioeconomically still oppressed.”

Luthuli emphasized that the school curriculum must be changed, and Cambridge curriculum should be adopted so that the South African children are competitive. “Focus on mathematics and sciences must be prioritized,” he said. “Businesses must be encouraged to adopt youth and mentor them. Debate societies and similar extramural activities must be reinstated. Instead of focusing and spending resources on sex education, the government should prioritize substantive educational tools to assist the youth and steer them into the workplace. Provide the youth with internet, like in Botswana, so that the youth can access sectors such as Uber and other virtual sectors.”

The decline in youth unemployment

Stats SA said that, currently, there is a decrease in the high rate of unemployment among the youth. Part of that could be young people withdrawing from the labor market entirely, becoming “inactive.”

While the 2022 South African national budget includes R5.2 billion (approximately $324 million) in tax relief to help support the economic recovery, including incentives for youth employment, issues of youth unemployment remain. Of the 40 million working-age population in the first quarter of 2022, more than half (51.6%) were youth (15-34). In the first quarter of 2022, total employment increased by 370,000 to 14.9 million, resulting in the official unemployment rate of 34.5%, according to Stats SA.

Luthuli said the ACDP welcomes any indication of a drop in high youth unemployment. “The trend, if at all it is happening, should be lauded and encouraged,” he said. “The ACDP will not cease to champion the youth cause until the least of these youths have better opportunities. When the righteous govern, the people rejoice (a reference to Proverbs 29:2).”

How churches are celebrating Youth Month

The youth of the Kingdom Connect Ministries church have raised funds and handed out meals and blankets to the indigent in their Pinetown community, just outside Durban. “To celebrate Youth Day, our youth will take the gospel to our community and provide meals, again to the needy,” Thring said.

Stats SA said apart from this year’s youth celebration, the focus will be on various youth development and empowerment initiatives to support young people. Meanwhile, some of the young adults have threatened to shut down police stations across the country on June 16, claiming the police are involved in corrupt dealings and have failed members of the community.

According to Koekoe, the youth celebration for the Methodist Church of Southern Africa is normally in September, as not all the member countries observe June 16 as a Youth Day. “We don’t plan activities for the 16th of June,” Koekoe said. “But we encourage local churches in South Africa to engage in activities of capacitation and awareness about gender-based violence and human trafficking, human sexuality, and mental health — these are our areas of focus this year, through crucial conversations and contextual Bible studies, seeking to equip and empower each other.” Koekoe will be joining interfaith celebrations with different faith-based organizations.  

“We will be having dialogue about public advocacy issues facing youth in our community, like drugs and substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and poverty, with the hope to realize some practical intervention and strategies to respond,” Koekoe said. “We are expecting 200 young people from different faith-based organizations and churches in our community.”

Vicky Abraham is an investigative journalist based in South Africa and has reported for the Mail & Guardian, City Press, Assist News, the Nation newspaper in Nigeria and Nation Media Group in Kenya.