Young people from across Johannesburg spent Youth Day, which commemorates the bravery of the youth that were killed in the 1976 Soweto Uprising, raising awareness around the scourge of gender-based violence.
In response to a spate of killings of women and children in South Africa, young people took to the city’s streets in protest. Their goal was to give a voice to the victims and their families.“The march took place towards the police station, it was to plead with the police system to take more action in getting justice for the murder of Tshegofatso Pule,” Sithabiso Mthethwa said.
Pule’s body was found hanging from a tree in earlier this month. The woman, who was eight months pregnant, had been stabbed. “I was raised by a single mother so this hit close to home,” Mthethwa said. “Gender-based violence should not be something that is within existence.”
June 16 was a day to reflect on the struggles of young people in South Africa, which also include unemployment, poverty and homelessness, Mthethwa said. In 1976 the youth were rising up against the education policies of the Apartheid government. Today, they must oppose violence against women and children.
“As men, I think we have forgotten that our main role is to protect and to provide,” he said. “I can only imagine what it is like as women to be in the world and anywhere, where there are men, you feel unsafe.”
