Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

16 June 2026

3-minute read

50 years since the Soweto uprising, when thousands of schoolchildren took to the streets to protest Bantu education and the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of learning, questions on whether the liberation struggle they fought for was fulfilled remain.

According to the executive director of the Ahmad Kathrada Foundation, Neeshan Bolton, the uprising came about 10 years after the liberation movement was crushed in 1966. It took the courage of the youth to protest an issue that many said they should “just tolerate.” The 1976 protest was supposed to be a peaceful march, but it ended in violence.

Significantly, younger generations should remember that the uprising “broke the cycle of fear” and laid the foundation for other organizations, in winning the battle against apartheid education. Those youth understood that education without dignity, equality and opportunity could not bring about true freedom. Bolton states that while access to education has improved with near universal enrolment into schools, the quality of education has not. Regression can be seen in the large number of students per classroom due to budget cuts. This current inequality in education, low literacy rates, poor infrastructure like pit toilets in schools, poor pass rates, high dropout rates, and the violent sexual abuse of female learners have reached “epidemic proportion” in the country.

“Democracy has failed for the vast majority,” says Neeshan, failing to deliver access to basic services and improvement in living standards. Those in power are overseeing the criminal element, particularly those working at government level, and are falling short on issues of living standards and social development. This has led to the huge crisis of high levels of unemployment among the youth and their involvement in crime and violence, as well as substance abuse.

However, he emphasizes that while most of the youth are not involved political discussions, and debates, they play a huge role in all other fields like environmental issues and GBV.

In bridging the gap, Bolton believes that the mind-set that says that a child’s life is only better with a university education is not accurate. The closing down of technical colleges was a great loss to the education system. Entrepreneurial education and support teaching the youth entrepreneurial skills in order to run their own businesses should be reintroduced, he states. Beyond government, giving young people internship and training opportunities and allowing them to lead in business and societal organizations like youth clubs will harness the leadership potential of the youth.

Big businesses should rethink models for entry points into the work field beyond formal qualifications from tertiary institutions. Knowledge, alongside the necessary skills and temperament, can get the youth to rethink the legacy of struggles like the Soweto uprising and “embody what the future could be.”

Listen to teh full interview with Ml Habib Bobat and Neeshan Bolton here.