Youth Day in South Africa

16 June was previously known as Soweto Day.

In 1975 protests started in African schools after a directive from the previous Bantu Education Department that Afrikaans had to be used on an equal basis with English as a language of instruction in secondary schools.

The issue however, was not so much the Afrikaans as the whole system of Bantu education which was characterised by separate schools and universities, poor facilities, overcrowded classrooms and inadequately trained teachers.

On the 16th June in 1976, more than 20 000 pupils from Soweto began a protest march. In the wake of clashes with the police, and the violence that ensued during the next few weeks, approximately 700 hundred people, many of them youths, were killed and property destroyed.

Youth Day commemorates these events.

Anyhoo, enough of the South African history lesson and, more interestingly, this year on Youth Day our South African football boyz, Bafana Bafana, are playing in the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup.  Whoop!  Whoop! 

They will be playing their second game of the cup and the entire country will be watched as they play Uruguay at Loftus Versfeld at 20:30.  So, out come the Vuvuzelas once again and our patriotic gear in order to support our team and scream at the telly.

Now thats so Ayoba!  Click here to buy tickets and go experience the game live! 

The Picture is Khune - Bafana Bafana's Goalie.
Happy Birthday for Monday, Itumeleng!