Peace crucial as we mark Day of the African Child

On June 16, 1976, an estimated 20,000 South African students took to the streets of Soweto to protest against the introduction of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. The riots were met with police brutality and by the time they ended, several hundred people lay dead and a lot of property had been destroyed. What began as an opposition to a retrogressive policy had evolved into a countrywide youth uprising against the apartheid regime.

The iconic photograph of fatally wounded Hector Pieterson was beamed across the world making him the poster child of the uprising that would indirectly lead to South Africa's first free and fair elections in 1994.Images of the riots shocked the world and brought international condemnation on the Apartheid government. History had been made-children were no longer innocent bystanders in world events.