By Norm Dixon
JOHANNESBURG — Leaders of South Africa's youth movements have expressed disappointment at the new government's attitude towards the June 16 Soweto Day celebrations. Seemingly succumbing to big business pressure, the government failed to declare the day a public holiday. As a result, attendance at the major rallies and celebrations was poor.
Soweto Day, also known as Heroes' Day, marks the anniversary of the beginning of the 1976 youth uprising and the revival of the freedom struggle that culminated in the regime agreeing to hold South Africa's historic first democratic elections.
The day marks the fearless contribution and sacrifice young people have made for freedom. That sacrifice has come to be symbolised by the tragic image of dying 13-year-old student Hector Peterson, shot when cops opened fire without warning on a march of 10,000 high school students.
Thousands of people gathered at the memorial in Soweto erected to the memory of Hector Peterson and the other youth who fell in the uprising. Later that day, fewer than 10,000 people gathered at Orlando Stadium to hear President Nelson Mandela deliver a speech. A concert featuring the progressive US hip-hop group Arrested Development and local stars drew a crowd of only 5000.
Since the government had not declared the day a public holiday, few black South Africans could afford to lose a day's pay, or risk being sacked.
"We have achieved our freedom", Mandela told the small but enthusiastic crowd. "But formal liberation will be an empty shell if we do not immediately start addressing the social conditions bred by apartheid."
He said that one of the first challenges facing the new South Africa was "to inculcate the culture of learning and teaching in all schools. No matter what the origins of the profound education crisis might be, the fact is that this has become our collective heritage. We are no longer petitioners, exerting pressure from the sidelines. We have to roll up our sleeves and together tackle the problems. I am personally encouraged by reports of a return to normality in the schools since the elections."
Mandela announced that the government would soon legislate to outlaw all discrimination in education and "take the first major steps towards 10 years of free quality education". As well as the National Youth Commission foreshadowed at the opening of parliament, Mandela announced that a Cabinet Committee on Youth would be formed, as would a national youth parliament.
"In these endeavours, political youth organisations in particular need to address the problem of their functioning simply as duplicates of their mother bodies ... what is needed are creative programs which promote the interests of all youth and involve African, Coloured, Indian and white youth ... Our central approach is to ensure that young people are fully integrated into the social, economic and political life of society."
The president said the government must "turn into reality the principle" that every child be loved and have a decent home. "The terrible legacy of street children has to be attended to with urgency. A collective effort has to be launched by the government, civil society and the private sector to ensure that every child is looked after, has sufficient nutrition and health care."
Mandela said that regardless of what the government decided to do to address the problems of street kids and children in custody, he would donate R150,000 of his salary each year to a trust fund.
Mandela also urged that South Africa's AIDS epidemic be faced. "We no longer can afford to hide behind tradition and embarrassment, pretending that this problem does not exist. To do so is to consign our nation to certain disaster. We need to join hands now to ensure that the campaigns launched make the maximum impact."
"Let us all rise to the challenge of the freedom that we have won. That challenge is to create a better life for all South Africans: to create jobs, to provide free quality education and open up opportunities for skills training, to build houses, to provide health facilities and other basic services."
In the days before June 16, the major union federations, COSATU and NACTU, and the ANC Youth League urged the government to proclaim the day a paid holiday. COSATU estimated that about 65% of organised workers had negotiated with their employers to have the day recognised as a paid holiday.
South Africa's business organisations claimed the country has "too many" holidays and each holiday costs "the nation" millions of rands in lost production. Strangely, business was mute when Republic Day, a holiday celebrating apartheid, passed on May 31.
ANC labour minister Tito Mboweni, however, called on workers to report for work. He said a committee would review public holidays.
ANCYL President Lulu Johnson, speaking on Radio Metro on June 16, said he was dissatisfied with the way the government had handled the issue. "This is a day that should be declared a day for the youth of this country. This day should be declared as a paid public holiday ... The ANC has been very insensitive."
Khotso Seathlolo, one of the leaders of the Soweto Students' Representative Council in 1976 and now a senior leader of the Azanian Peoples Organisation (AZAPO), said, "From 1976 up until last year, people have been dying in demand of this day being recognised as a public holiday. The ANC itself has been calling stay-aways on this day since it was unbanned. We are bound to be disappointed."
Trofomo Sono, who led the SSRC in 1977 and is now active in the Pan Africanist Congress, added: "What happened today is a disgrace ... We seem to be going out of our way to appease the business community, who say we have had too many holidays, we can't have another. Whether Botha or de Klerk liked it or not, we had this holiday for 17 years. Why today, when we are in power, can't we have it?"
Talkback radio listeners were unanimous in their dissatisfaction at the government's lack of resolve. Hope from Johannesburg summed up the feelings of many, describing the ANC's failure to recognise a holiday as a "blunder": "The majority of the people recognise the day as an important day. Employers should take it as it is."
Sbu, calling from Soweto, said, "There appears to be a certain section in the ANC which wants to please whites at the expense of blacks in the name of reconciliation. Reconciliation must not be one-sided."