Every year on 16 June, South Africans pause to remember the Soweto Uprising of 1976. While the day commemorates a painful chapter in our country’s history, it is also a reminder of the power of young people to challenge injustice and demand a better future. As I reflect on the significance of the Soweto Uprising, I am reminded that its lessons extend far beyond history. It teaches us valuable lessons about learning, personal growth, resilience, and the opportunities that educ

As a young South African in 2026, I have come to understand that education is one of the most powerful tools for changing lives. Yet, despite the progress our country has made since democracy, educational inequality remains a reality for many young people. The quality of education, access to resources, technology, mentorship, and career opportunities often depends on where a person is born and the circumstances they grow up in. My own learning journey has shown me both the

In 1974, the Department of Bantu Education issued the Afrikaans Medium Decree, which was a policy that mandated the use of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in Black secondary schools. This proved to be a significant hardship on black learners and educators who were not properly equipped to teach and learn subjects in a language that was not their mother tongue. This law was met with rejection from black students who saw the language as that of ‘the oppressors’ and thus

Fifty years ago, the youth of 1976 took to the streets of Soweto not with weapons, but with words. Their demand was deceptively simple: the right to learn in a language they understood. The right to think in their own voice. The right to be educated on their own terms. That uprising, which we commemorate every 16 June on Youth Day, was at its core a battle for the right to know. It was a fight for intellectual sovereignty. Fast forward exactly 50 years from that moment, from