June 16 – a special day in Soweto

Today is June 16, Youth day in Soweto.
Today, 34 years ago, the uprising against apartheid started.
In this article you will meet the uncle of Wire (the boss at the Blitz-office).
He was there when it started.
This is his story.

My name is Brian Tshabalala.
I live in one of Soweto's suburbs called Protea Glen.
I studied at Morris Isaacson where the student uprising started boycotting the Afrikaans as our first language. We were made to study all our subjects in afrikaans and we did not like it since we were under oppression.
The student organized a protest march to make our consent heard but things did not go well. It was June 16 1976 Morris Isaacson when it all started. Some kids were shot by police and Hector Pieterson was one of them. Some of our fellow students had to go on hiding (exile) because police were looking for them.
In 1979 february I had to go to exile too.
I landed in Botswana were I found some South Africans in Brouhurst (Gaborone) at a village called Otse (farm) and it was a PAC struggle Camp. We had to choose between education or military training and I chose military training. We trained from 1979-1980 in November. In 1981 I went to Zimbabwe for further training and I went back to Botswana in May\June.
After that we were deported back to our country (South Africa).

It is good for us to host the World cup, the biggest football Tournament in the world, for unity and prosperity. For other countries is to experience the beauty, hospitality and to learn the notion of Ubuntu that was kept away from them by apartheid.
We wish to win this cup for unity sake.
As a youngster I thought that we will play one day in the World cup.
The stumbling block was the apartheid era and it kept us from participating among the world best.
We had best player and we would have won the cup with that. The likes of Jomo Sono, Teenage Dladla to name a few. That was our germs and they played oversees.

The World cup first gives us an opportunity to explore other countries cultures.
Football is a universal language and it unites cultures.

There is still a future for the Rainbow nation and the country is democratically young.
Democracy is a process and I think we will prosper.

Written by Wire

PS. You can read more about Youth day and the activities today at: http://www.joburg.org.za/content/view/5342/266/