The Soweto Uprising. Re-Living June 16th: A first-hand account of history

On 16 June 1976, Soweto, just outside Johannesburg, South Africa, erupted in the first mass uprising against the apartheid regime, as thousands of students took to the streets protesting government’s attempt to force them to study all school subjects in Afrikaans.

In the weeks that followed, somewhere between 176 and 700 people were killed, and the course of South African history had changed forever.

On Wednesday evening, we re-live the events of 16 June 1976 with student leaders of the time, a then cub reporter, Max du Preez; the daughters of Dr Melville Edelstein (the first white person killed in the Soweto uprising); and the sister of Hector Pieterson, pictured in the iconic photograph that symbolised the uprising.

Join us for a first-hand account of one of the most important days in South Africa’s history.