A little girl plays next to the 1976 picture at the Hector Peterson Memorial in Soweto. 50 years since the uprising, learners continue to face challenges, including water shortages and loadshedding.
Fifty years since the 1976 Soweto uprising, whose slogan was ‘Liberation before Education’, the struggle for liberation and better education has not ended, but has evolved.
This is the view of Sibusiso Tswaaeli, a matric pupil from Morris Isaacson High School in Soweto, Johannesburg.
He is an academic achiever who takes a strong interest in societal issues, especially in his community.
“I feel both gratitude and frustration. I am a beneficiary of 1976, because I have opportunities that black learners were denied in apartheid times. However, my generation is still waiting for its own liberation, from unemployment, inequality, poor quality education, and crime, among other things,” he said.
