The 50th anniversary of June 16 1976 is a moment for us to pause and reflect not just about the past, but the present and the country’s future.
Many of those among us fortunate enough to have jobs will be taking a break from work tomorrow, spending the holiday with their families and loved ones.
Others will be attending events organised across the nation to commemorate a day in which scores of pupils, children really — some as young as 11 years old, took to the streets of Soweto to protest against the imposition of Afrikaans as a language of instruction.
The then state responded with cruelty, mowing down hundreds of children and detaining many more.
What followed thereafter was an uprising that was to last for 18 months and which spread to various parts of SA, including this city we now call Gqeberha.
June 16 did not just change the lives of the protesting students, it changed the face of South African politics and revived a resistance movement that would rise like a tide, culminating in the establishment of a democratic SA in 1994.
As we remember the day, the one question we should be asking ourselves is whether — 50 years on — has South Africa lived up to the democratic ideals many of the children were willing to lay their lives down for.
Their struggle wasn’t just about the language of instruction, but against a racially segregated education system.
They believed that the system could not be reformed within apartheid and were convinced that the introduction of non-racial democracy was the only lasting solution.
Today, we enjoy many of the rights they could only dream of, yet there is still a long way to go.
While access to education has largely been deracialised, the sad reality is that the quality of education children receive is still largely determined by race and class.
While the democratic order has meant that the doors of higher learning are open to all, growing numbers of graduates — especially from black and coloured communities — are without jobs.
The solutions to all these issues no longer depend on people taking to the streets.
We live in a democratic society where we can make our voices heard through various means, including the ballot.
As we remember the sacrifices of June 16 1976, we should reflect on what we, as individuals and a collective, can do to make SA even better.