Precious Mashaba, a Master’s candidate from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and a Hammanskraal resident has placed two schools at the centre of student led protests in the area, following the Soweto uprising of June 16, 1976.
As the echoes of the June 16, 1976, Soweto uprising resound through history, a new narrative is emerging from the township of Hammanskraal.
Precious Mashaba, a Master’s candidate from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and a Hammanskraal resident, is shedding light on the often overlooked contribution of rural youth to the fervent struggle against apartheid.
Last month, during a conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the June 16 protests at UJ’s Soweto campus, Mashaba presented her compelling yet unpublished study. While Hammanskraal lies over 150 kilometres from Soweto, its youth were not merely passive observers; they actively participated in the protests, reflecting their solidarity with peers in Soweto and underscoring the interconnectedness of the anti-apartheid movement.
"II want to tell a story about what happened during 1976 on the 21st of June in Hammanskraal, Temba. For me to do so, I had to go back and look at, of course, the 1960s and how students were affected during that time.
