South Africa marks anniversary of Soweto student protests

South Africa's high rate of unemployment has cast a pall over Youth Day, the holiday honoring the 45th anniversary of the Soweto student protests which played a key role in ending apartheid, the previous regime of racist, minority rule

JOHANNESBURG -- South Africa's high rate of unemployment has cast a pall over Youth Day, the holiday honoring the 45th anniversary of the Soweto student protests which played a key role in ending apartheid, the previous regime of racist, minority rule. On June 16, 1976, thousands of Black students in Johannesburg's Soweto township demonstrated against the imposition of the Dutch-based Afrikaans language in schools. Police reacted with violence and more than 100 students were killed, including 13-year-old Hector Pieterson. Pictures of Pieterson's lifeless body being carried by grieving fellow student Mbuyisa Makhubu spread across the world and highlighted the brutality of the white apartheid government against Black South Africans. When South Africa achieved majority rule and Nelson Mandela was elected president in 1994, his government honored the student protests by making June 16 a public holiday, Youth Day.