Press Statement dated 15 June 2018
The Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) has called for an end to the scourge of bullying at school as it joins the nation and progressive mankind all over the world in saluting and commemorating Youth Day tomorrow.
The government renamed June 16 “Youth Day’ and declared it one of the most important public holidays in the national calender to commemorate 16 June 1976 when the apartheid police used live ammunition to disperse thousands of children who were marching from Naledi High School past Morris Isaacson High School on Mphuthi Street in Central Western Jabu, Soweto on their way to the Orlando Stadium to protest against the imposition of Afrikaans language as the medium of instruction in black schools.
Hastings Ndlovu is believed to have been the first child to be shot and killed by the apartheid police on that fateful day followed by the fatal shooting of Hector Pietersen (12) who became the global iconic image of the 1976 Soweto uprising in apartheid South Africa when a newspaper photograph by Sam Nzima - of the dying Hector being carried by a fellow student - was published around the world. A post-mortem revealed that Pieterson was killed by a shot fired directly at him and not by a bullet 'ricocheting off the ground' as police claimed.
Sam Nzima recalls: "I saw a child fall down. Under a shower of bullets I rushed forward and went for the picture. It had been a peaceful march, the children were told to disperse, and they started singing Nkosi Sikelele iAfrika. The police were then ordered to shoot them." By the end of the day, 566 black children had been cut down in cold blood by the apartheid police.
A lot of wrong things have been right by the government in our schools since the tragic incidents of 16 June 1976. However in the interim a lot of bad things – chief among them, the bullying of younger children by over-aged and academically challenged pupils- have reared their ugly to the extent that schools are once again unsafe environments for peace-loving students who face physical from these bullies on a daily basis. FEDUSA would like to appeal to the Department of Basic Education to take decisive action against bullying in our schools.
Furthermore, FEDUSA salutes the government’s initiative to address high youth unemployment – estimated at nearly 70 percent of the 27 percent unemployed labour force in the country - through the YES (Youth Employment Scheme) programme
Issued by Dennis George, General Secretary, Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa)