COSATU Commemorates Youth Day, 16 June 2012
On Youth Day 2012, the Congress of South African Trade Unions salutes the heroes and heroines of 16 June 1976, whose fearless confrontation with the forces of the apartheid dictatorship paved the way for the freedom and democracy we enjoy today.
This June 16 Commemoration coincides with the 20th anniversary of the Boipatong massacre, which is one of the most painful chapters in our history, when our people were stabbed, maimed and butchered by the enemy camp in the thick of the night as part of the apartheid state's strategy to derail the process of change in our country.
COSATU dips its revolutionary flag to salute the martyrs of freedom that were painfully slaughtered on 17 June 1992 by the apartheid regime and its collaborators. The twentieth anniversary of the Boipatong Massacre is a reminder of the bloodshed that accompanied our quest for democracy.
This year, as we celebrate 36 years since the 1976 uprising we ought to remember that this revolt was not merely about the introduction of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in black schools but was also a response to the growing misery in black townships as a result of apartheid capitalism.
The youth uprising cannot be divorced from the 1973 workers' strikes which began in Durban. The 1976 revolt was born of the struggle against poverty, unemployment, a poor education system for blacks, hostile labour relations and squalid living conditions in the hostels and the townships. 1976 revived the faith of the people in their organisations and that indeed apartheid must be brought to its knees.