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30th Anniversary of 16 June 1976

In 1975 protests started in African schools after a directive from the previous Bantu Education Department that Afrikaans had to be used on an equal basis with English as a language of instruction in secondary schools. The issue however, was not so much the Afrikaans, as the whole system of Bantu Education, which was characterized by separate schools and universities, poor facilities, overcrowded classrooms and inadequately trained teachers.

On 16 June 1976 more than 20 000 pupils from Soweto began a protest march. In the wake of clashes with the police, and the violence that ensued during the next few weeks, approximately 700 people, many of them youths, were killed and property destroyed.

In commemoration of this day, SAMGI hosted an exhibition on 12 and 13 June at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town Campus. The exhibition aimed to honour the youth who braved the streets in 1976 and to celebrate the historical role played by youth in the transformation process and whenever society has been challenged to embark on critical social change.

Materials, donated by the UWC/Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archive and others, consists of photographs, poems, newspaper archive material and activist material produced during the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's.

On the evening of 13 June 2006, the exhibition was opened by two distinguished guests. Sam Nzima, photographer of the now famous photograph of Hector Petersen being carried by Mbuyisa Makhubu, and Antoinette Sithole were at the event to share their experience on 16 June 1976 with the group of youth who attended the opening.

The stories shared by these honoured guests brought home the reality of what really took place on that fateful day. Thirty years later, the memories of the events of 16 June 1976 are still vivid in the minds of both Antoinette Sithole and Sam Nzima.

For the youth who were present at the opening, being able to listen to first-hand accounts of this important day in South Africa 's history, has been a truly inspiring and enlightening experience.

The exhibition, which will travel to schools in the Western Cape , will eventually be donated to the Hawequa Correctional Facility for Juveniles.