The continuing struggle of SA's youth

BOTH the youth of 1976 and today’s generation in South Africa face similar challenges, including oppression and poverty, which have contributed to widespread instability and a sense of mental suffocation.

- AWAM MAVIMBELA Mavimbela is a registered social worker, former Walter Sisulu University lecturer, PhD candidate with University of the Free State, and a published author

This psychological doldrum stems from the harsh conditions they endure - such as dilapidated housing, inadequate education that leads to poverty, unemployment, poor mental health, and more.

The death of Hector Pieterson occurred on a peaceful decolonial turn in 1976. One key argument of this historic epoch was that the Bantu Education curriculum by design aims not to liberate Black South Africans from the socio-economic margins imposed by colonialism.

Instead, it institutionalised poverty and produced labourers rather than individuals equipped with political and economic awareness.

Poverty brings with it profound psychological impacts - depression, frustration, suicidal ideation, and despair.

Today's youth also suffer from mental suffocation, and their resistance — from the #FeesMustFall movement to the present day - has come at great cost, with the deaths of young people such as Sisonke Mbolekwa, Benjamin Phehla, Mthokozisi Ntumba, and Mlungisi Madonsela.

Fees Must Fall was not only a call for free education, but also for a decolonised curriculum. This was predicated on the observation that, the colonial legacy of apartheid education curriculum still sidelines vulnerable groups, reducing them to labourers rather than ideological independent, critically engaged, politically and economically conscious individuals.