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My dear friends and fellow South Africans,

On Tuesday we remembered when, on 16 June 1976, thousands of
schoolchildren marched through Soweto ostensibly protesting against a
ruling to install Afrikaans as a second compulsory medium of
instruction in schools. The police fired on them, killing
thirteen-year-old Hector Pietersen. In the ensuing chaos, Soweto
became a bloody battlefield and within days strikes and riots spread
to the Cape.

After the massacre, I was asked by some of the prominent leaders of
the Committee of Ten in Soweto like Dr Ntatho Motlana and Dr Percy
Qoboza, the Editor of ?The World', which was banned by the apartheid
regime, to make arrangements for their children to study in KwaZulu
schools. We arranged for the children to attend the kwaDlangezwa High
school where Dr Sibusiso Bengu was the principal and also the then
Secretary General of the Inkatha National Cultural Liberation Movement.

By the end of the year the death toll was given as 575 dead and 2,389
wounded. International condemnation of the Soweto riots gave
supporters of the armed struggle a fillip, but I rejected the call for
?liberation now, education later? which prompted black people to
undermine and destroy the black education system in order to foment
students into supporting the armed struggle. We are still living with
the consequences today. At the time, Inkatha juxtaposed the slogan
with ?education for liberation? in the belief that education should be
turned into a tool of liberation and human growth. Looking back, I
believe this truth remains as relevant today.

Young people want a stable job, education for their children and a
pension for their own old age ? which creeps up much faster than we
think. Social advancement, paired with social responsibility, has
always been deeply rooted in our African tradition. I never believed
that the structural underdevelopment of South Africa's black
communities could be addressed by decree from above. I think this is
one of the key lessons of the class of 1976. The communities held and
still hold the key to their social advancement in their own hands.
Real development can only be generated from below.

I believe we can increase the likelihood of our young people growing
up as caring, capable adults by providing opportunities for the
development of skills, competencies and positive experiences with
involved adults who have high expectations in life and a positive
attitude toward youth.

I believe that our youth, our families, our communities and our
congregations are providing the essential nutrients required to thrive
in life. The crucial ingredients are caring, capable families;
effective, safe schools; efficient social networks of understanding
and competent adults; and welcoming community organisations that
provide opportunities for fun, recreation and meaningful contribution
by and for the youth.

In order to materialise all this, our youth must have access to the
resources and opportunities that will not only allow them to imagine
wonderful possibilities for themselves, but to pursue them with the
encouragement, vigour and effective guidance of everyone around them.
It is vital too that the zest of youth is balanced with the experience
and wisdom of older people. Both are necessary ingredients of a
well-functioning society. Whilst I do not subscribe to Oscar Wilde's
witticism that ?youth is wasted on the young?, I am reminded of the
founder of the PAC Robert Sobukwe's maxim which always makes me smile,
?It is possible for a person to repeat a day's experience for the rest
of their life?. He said this to counter the argument of those who at
the time were belittling our political stand as the youth, on the
basis that we were inexperienced.

We are also reminded this week that we need innovation and fresh
vigour in HIV prevention which affects the youth worst of all. We must
determine what the most effective ways to reduce transmission are
where multiple concurrent sexual partnerships appear to be driving the
pandemic. We must tackle head on the issue of early sexual debut with
vulnerable young girls. We must devise workable strategies to impart
to these young women how to negotiate safe sex and challenge
patriarchal dominance. We must figure out how civil society can best
be engaged to turn the tide against HIV and bring the terrible numbers
down. As I always say, if the Ugandan people led by President Yoweri
Museveni managed to reduce the pandemic from 30 percent to 5 percent,
why can't we do the same with even more resources than Uganda has?

To do this we will need to inculcate in our youth selfless
volunteerism, enlightened activism and political leadership which can
exist at every level and thrive in all walks of life. We know what
works in epidemics which are still concentrated among those
subcultures that engage in risky behaviours such as intravenous drug
use or sex work. We must therefore put our heads together to help
governments and NGOs to implement and support programmes which are
proven to be effective. We must not be afraid to take controversial
steps ? so long as we are careful, discreet and conscious of people's
needs and basic human rights.

As we turn to these noble tasks, we have no better inspiration than
the gold class of 1976 to show us that, as much as freedom is the
outcome of a collective effort, it is a matter of choice and it is the
work of individuals.

Yours sincerely,

Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi MP