Heritage Cases

As a representative site for the Youth Uprisings, the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum was identified as one of the ten sites for the initial World Heritage Liberation Heritage Route Nomination: “Human Rights, Liberation Struggle and Reconciliation: Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites”. The June 16 Trail was developed by the City of Johannesburg’s Arts Culture and Heritage Directorate incrementally since 2006. It follows the route that students from various schools in Soweto followed when they marched in protest against the Bantu Education system on 16th June 1976. The Trail links the various schools that participated as well as other sites of importance to the Youth Uprisings. These include the Morris Isaacson High School, the June 16 Memorial Acre and the Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum. The route that the students marched is marked with red walkways. The students had marched into the area from many schools around Soweto using various routes. The police had positioned themselves in readiness for their arrival in the same area. It is therefore the area of the major confrontations and shootings that took place on that day. The significance of the 16 June Trail and the sites lies in their historical associations to the pivotal events of the Soweto Youth Uprisings. Inspired by the black consciousness movement, incensed by the compulsory use of Afrikaans as a medium of tuition and frustrated by the apathy of their parents, thousands of students took the streets to protest against the Bantu Education System and to voice their political frustrations at the government’s attempt. The Soweto Uprisings become a pivotal moment in the history of the Struggle against Apartheid which led to months of rioting and protests across the country. The anger and horror of the police shootings spread rapidly across the country and within a month hundreds of communities were involved in protests against the government, including schools in Langa, Nyanga and Gugulethu.