South Africa marks 50th anniversary of the 1976 student uprising

It was a decisive turning point in the fight against apartheid in South Africa. On 16 June 1976, students took to the streets of Soweto to protest against the imposition of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in Black schools.

What followed was a massacre, with 176 dead after the police opening fired, and a death toll that came closer to 700 as the protests spread across the country.

"The 1976 struggle was, in its broadness, a fight against apartheid, but we knew that there's a pillar of that system of apartheid that we needed to deal with, and that was education," said Seth Mazibuko who was one of the student leaders at the time.

One of the most enduring symbols of the Soweto uprising is that of 13-year-old Hector Pieterson. Soweto resident, Mrs Sixolo, was a first-hand witness of the apartheid police's actions on that day.

She said that she that the police were in her street and she could not believe her eyes as she went outside with other parents.

“In all this commotion, this little boy Hector Pieterson came from this side and I said to them, 'Don't go this side, this police are shooting, don't go this side',” she said.

“And my word wasn't cold. They shot the little boy, and he fell here, just here. He didn't die there, he fell here.”

South African photographer Sam Nzima’s photo of his lifeless body being carried by another student moments after he was shot, shocked the world and became a symbol of apartheid’s brutality.

News reports of the police action led to increased international condemnation, boycotts, and economic sanctions.

Within a year, the United Nations Security Council imposed an arms embargo on South Africa.

Apartheid officially ended in 1994, but many believe the dream of a better life for all young people has not materialised.

For Mazibuko, the fading traces of the uprising on Soweto's streets, are more than a quirk of urban maintenance.

He thinks they symbolise a nation failing to honour the legacy of Soweto or deliver the future for which its children died.

“People get drunk to go and dance over death. That's the sad part of our history," he said, adding that "the very respect of that day is not given".

Mazibuko gives regular talks at schools about the Soweto uprising. He recalled a moment at one that brought him to tears.

"There was this one girl who is African, a black girl," he said. "I asked her, do you know who Hector Pieterson is? She said: 'Sarafina'."

The reference is to a 1992 musical starring Whoopi Goldberg that was inspired by the uprising. Mazibuko criticised it as blurring the line between history a