JUNE 1976 REMEMBERED

Junior Malobola

By Junior Malobola

In 1976 I was in secondary school doing Form 3 (Grade 10) and aiming very high to finish my form 4 and 5 (grade 11 and 12) in the following two years.

I was in the only class that was referred to as that of Mathematicians at the school.

This as we were brilliant learners who had been selected to do Science subjects.

In that very same year, our class teacher one day came and told us that the Department of Bantu Education under the apartheid regime has declared that going forward, all major subjects were to be taught in Afrikaans.

The said subjects were Mathematics, which in Afrikaans was called Wiskunde as well as Physical Science, Biology, History, Geography, Woodcraft and other commercial subjects.

Our response to the Bantu Education Department’s declaration was a bold NO!

Teachers who refused to comply with the Department’s directive to teach subjects in Afrikaans were subjected to harassment and threats of losing their jobs by the department, and there was a white school inspector who visited schools daily to see to it that the department’s mission was accomplished.

Our class teacher again came to us and explained that the half-yearly June exams would be in Afrikaans and again our response was a bold NO!

We started holding students’ meetings whereby we affirmed our rejection of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction for all the major subjects at schools.

We formed students’ debating societies where we competed against one another on topics like “a pen is mightier than the sword.”

We didn’t write the June exams on time as we (students) resisted the motion passed by the Department of Bantu Education to use Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.

We would go to school and leave early as no teaching was taking place at the time.

Teachers were living in fear of the white racist regime’s policy while students defied it openly.

We were now politicised and conscientised about the struggle against apartheid under the slogan ” Aluta Continua” (the struggle goes on).

We also started listening to the voice of the African National Congress (ANC) on radio broadcasting from Tanzania and Botswana on the AM Wavelength but many radio sets at that time couldn’t access AM Wavelength and only broadcasted on Frequency Modulation (FM).

So we started bunking school in the afternoons to go to the nearest home of a student whose radio could broadcast on AM Wavelength, and were enthralled by the speeches and poetry recitals emanating from the broadcasts.

On Wednesday June 16 Soweto students marched against the system of Bantu Education and the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction, only to be confronted with violence by the apartheid security forces.

The following day (June 17) we arrived at school holding aloft newspapers which depicted the brutal onslaught of the apartheid security forces on our fellow students in Soweto.

We cried and sang “Senzeni Na?” (What have we done?)

On Monday 21 June students residing in the townships of Pretoria including Atteridgrville and Mamelodi rose in protest and solidarity against the killing of Soweto students.

From that day harassment of student leaders ensued; resulting in some of them skipping the country to go and live in exile, while others were killed and detained by the apartheid regime.

The struggle against apartheid continued inside and outside the country.

We the students of 1976 refused to be called names by the white man, and we also refused to call the white man “baas.”

In my family home of Mokgonyana in Mamelodi East we opened our doors to horde Umkhonto We Sizwe guerillas who were coming into the country from exile to engage the apartheid regime in armed combat.

It is my opinion that by resorting to armed struggle which contributed to the demise of the apartheid regime, the 1976 students affirmed the assertion that ” a sword is mightier than a pen.”