Sweto Events

Soweto Events

(1 to 2 min)

Good morning everyone.

Today’s topic is Soweto Events that occurred on the Wednesday, 16 June 1976, at 8 in the morning.

Soweto is a black suburb in South Africa, located 10 miles away from Johannesburg, in Gauteng’s province.

Wednesday morning, several thousands of black students from Morris Isaacson’s school manifested their anger towards the goverment’s decision to change english into afrikaans.

They started to march all around Soweto and stopped in front of Orlando’s Stadium. But a hundred of police officers were waiting for them there. The police started by asking them  to leave and stop their manifestation but the angry students started to throw rocks and objects at them. Because of that the police reacted by releasing the dogs, throwing tear bombs, and shooting the students with real bullets. Hector Pierterson was a 13 years old boy that was shoot in his back, Sam Nzima, a photographer took a picture of the agonising boy before he died. This picture shows the violence of Soweto fight and the apartheid.

After that, other black suburbs started to manifest and the same thing happened to them.

In total more than five hundred black students and two white students died in these confrontations and a hundred others were injured, to defend black power.

Finaly on July 1976 the government decided to remove it’s law.

These events  mark the beggining of a new era in South Africa, in which whites supremacy cease to fully control political power.

Thanks for listening to me, it was Maria GROËNDU on « Soweto Events ».

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