by James Tweedie

SOUTH AFRICAN trade unions marked National Youth Day yesterday with calls for better education and more jobs for young people.

Youth Day, formerly Soweto Day, marks the June 16 1976 Soweto uprising by tens of thousands of school students against the introduction of Afrikaans as an language of instruction in segregated black schools, putting it on an equal footing with English.

Police opened fire on protesting children, resulting in 176 deaths. One of the first to be shot was 13-year-old Hector Pieterson.

Sam Nzima’s photograph of the dying boy being carried by fellow student Mbuyisa Makhubo came to symbolise the brutality of apartheid.

Union federation Cosatu said that more needed to be done to improve infrastructure and teaching at schools formerly disadvantaged under the racist regime’s Bantu education system.

It said parents needed help to afford expensive school uniforms and transport for their children.

Cosatu also called on all young workers to join trade unions “to fight against precarious working conditions across all sectors of the economy,” and welcomed the formation of youth structures by some unions.

The federation said there should be a move towards a more industrialised economy to reduce unemployment and create more “decent jobs” with a skilled workforce, pointing out that there are 240,000 unemployed graduates in South Africa.

Mining union NUM called for greater efforts to create jobs for young people to reduce the high rate of youth unemployment.

It urged companies to commit to providing training and skills development for young workers in the mining, energy, and construction sectors.