City speaker lauds Japie Vilankulu on youth day
ALEXANDRA – Alexandrians celebrate youth month in memory of Japie Vilankulu.
Alex residents and the Joburg City Council joined the rest of the country on 17 June in commemorating the iconic June 16, and June as youth month, through an event which honoured Japie Vilankulu, the first student killed in 1976 in the township by the apartheid regime during the student uprising.
They invoked his spirit in honour of the day and credited it globally with hastening the emergence of the country’s democratic dispensation in 1994. His senseless murder – along with that of many other students in protests which started in Soweto and spread countrywide – was prompted by the students’ opposition to the enforced use of Afrikaans as a medium of Bantu education.
The event held on the day the uprising took place in Alex, and combined early morning prayers at Vilankulu’s home on 12th Avenue, a ceremony and laying of wreaths at his grave site at the old Alex cemetery, and a speech by the speaker Vasco da Gama, an Alex native.
Da Gama lauded Vilankulu and the others for their courageous stance against the previous, oppressive regime. “Despite his youth, he is an inspiration and his name will forever be etched in the history of our people’s struggle,” Da Gama said.
He stated that youth was a passing phase, a state of open and enquiring minds, a lightness of spirit, a love for adventure and a time when discoveries, joys and scars determine one’s future success or failure – or life and death as happened that year.
He urged the youth to continue to be vessels of change in order to prompt him and other politicians to be answerable to society. “Our actions as catalysts for change have a direct bearing on your future,” Da Gama said, urging the youth not to sit back and wish for changes in their lives but to engage and work with authorities in order to reap the benefits of a changing society and country.
“Working together, despite our differences, we can do extraordinary things to promote common values, achieve our common hopes, dreams and aspirations.” These, Da Gama said, are themes he gained from the Alex community which influenced his political career.
With the national general elections in 2019, he urged the youth to sustain the current freedom and democratic dispensation by deciding and supporting those they believed promoted freedom and fairness. “Decide on who is against any form of corruption and self-enrichment and who want to consolidate on the democratic change.”
Vilankulu’s legacy will also continue through the Japie Vilankulu Trust, which was set up two years ago to support the township children’s educational needs.
Details: Joburg City Council 011 407 7494; Refiloe Khunou 078 520 9171.
Read: Youth Day: Advice for and from millennials
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