Honour your past, own your future
Note to the Editors: This is an extract of the speech delivered by Makashule Gana at the DA National Youth Day event in Soweto on 16 June 2012.
Today we commemorate the bravery of those young South Africans who rose up in 1976 in defiance of an unjust policy that denied them opportunities.
We met Mrs Mabaso who tragically lost her son in this uprising. We also met her unemployed grandson who represents the struggles still faced by young South Africans in 2012.
36 years after that fateful day that played out in the very community we stand in today, we again see young people in South Africa, and in the rest of the world, rising up against policies that deny them opportunities.
In 2012, our struggle is to access opportunities to step out of the cycle of poverty. Opportunities like a good education and a job through which we can contribute productively.