Soweto uprising The Soweto Uprising , also known as 16 June , is a series of protests led by high school students in South Africa that began on the morning of 16 June 1976 . Students from numerous Sowetan schools began to protest in the streets of Soweto in response to the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in local schools . An estimated 20 , 000 students took part in the protests . The number of people who died is usually given as 176 , with estimates of up to 700 . 16 June is now a public holiday , Youth Day , in South Africa , in remembrance of the events of 1976 . Causes of the protests . Black high school students in Soweto protested against the " Afrikaans Medium Decree " of 1974 , which forced all black schools to use Afrikaans and English in a 50 – 50 mix as languages of instruction . The Regional Director of Bantu Education ( Northern Transvaal Region ) , J . G . Erasmus , told Circuit Inspectors and Principals of Schools that from 1 January 1975 , Afrikaans had to be used for mathematics , arithmetic , and social studies from standard five ( 7th grade ) , according to the Afrikaans Medium Decree ; English would be the medium of instruction for general science and practical subjects ( homecraft , needlework , woodwork , metalwork , art , agricultural science ) . Indigenous languages would only be used for religion instruction , music , and physical culture . In the late 1960s and early 1970s the system began to weaken . Influenced by many events such as the death throes of colonialism in Africa , the rise of ' Black Power ' in the USA and a growing worldwide antagonism towards Apartheid , Africans began to fight back . The association of Afrikaans with apartheid prompted black South Africans to prefer English . Even the homeland regimes chose English and an indigenous African language as official languages . In addition , English was gaining prominence as the language most often used in commerce and industry . The 1974 decree was intended to forcibly reverse the decline of Afrikaans among black Africans . The Afrikaner - dominated government used the clause of the 1909 Union of South Africa Act that recognised only English and Dutch ( the latter being replaced by Afrikaans in 1925 ) as official languages as pretext to do so . While all schools had to provide instruction in both Afrikaans and English as languages , white students learned other subjects in their home language . Punt Janson , the Deputy Minister of Bantu Education at the time , was quoted as saying : " A Black man may be trained to work on a farm or in a factory . He may work for an employer who is either English - speaking or Afrikaans - speaking and the man who has to give him instructions may be either English - speaking or Afrikaans - speaking . Why should we now start quarrelling about the medium of instruction among the Black people as well ? … No , I have not consulted them and I am not going to consult them . I have consulted the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa … " The decree was resented deeply by blacks as Afrikaans was widely viewed , in the words of Desmond Tutu , bishop of Lesotho and later Dean of Johannesburg , as " the language of the oppressor " . Teacher organisations such as the African Teachers Association of South Africa objected to the decree . A change in language of instruction forced the students to focus on understanding the language instead of the subject material . This made critical analysis of the content difficult and discouraged critical thinking . The resentment grew until 30 April 1976 , when children at Orlando West Junior School in Soweto went on strike , refusing to go to school . Their rebellion then spread to many other schools in Soweto . Black South African students protested because they believed that they deserved to be treated and taught equally to White South Africans . A student from Morris Isaacson High School , Teboho ' Tsietsi ' Mashinini , proposed a meeting on 13 June 1976 to discuss what should be done . Students formed an Action Committee ( later known as the Soweto Students ' Representative Council ) that organised a mass rally for 16 June to make themselves heard . In a BBC / SABC documentary broadcast for the first time in June 2006 , surviving leaders of the uprising described how they planned in secret for the demonstration , surprising their teachers and families ( and the apartheid police ) with the power and strength of the demonstration ( see ' Radio ' section below ) . The uprising . On the morning of 16 June 1976 , between 10 , 000 and 20 , 000 black students walked from their schools to Orlando Stadium for a rally to protest against having to learn through Afrikaans in school . Many students who later participated in the protest arrived at school that morning without prior knowledge of the protest , yet agreed to become involved . The protest was intended to be peaceful and had been carefully planned by the Soweto Students ' Representative Council ' s ( SSRC ) Action Committee , with support from the wider Black Consciousness Movement . Teachers in Soweto also supported the march after the Action Committee emphasised good discipline and peaceful action . Tsietsi Mashinini led students from Morris Isaacson High School to join up with others who walked from Naledi High School . The students began the march only to find out that police had barricaded the road along their intended route . The leader of the action committee asked the crowd not to provoke the police and the march continued on another route , eventually ending up near Orlando High School . The crowd of between 3 , 000 and 10 , 000 students made their way towards the area of the school . Students sang and waved placards with slogans such as , " Down with Afrikaans " , " Viva Azania " and " If we must do Afrikaans , Vorster must do Zulu " . A 2006 BBC / SABC documentary corroborated the testimony of Colonel Kleingeld , the police officer who fired the first shot , with eyewitness accounts from both sides . In Kleingeld ' s account , some of the children started throwing stones as soon as they spotted the police patrol , while others continued to march peacefully . Colonel Kleingeld drew his handgun and fired a shot , causing panic and chaos . Students started screaming and running and more gunshots were fired . The police loosed their dogs on the children , who responded by stoning the dogs to death . The police then began to shoot directly at the children . One of the first students to be shot dead was 13 - year - old Hector Pieterson . He was shot at Orlando West High School and became the symbol of the Soweto uprising . The police attacks on the demonstrators continued and 23 people , including two white people , died on the first day in Soweto . Among them was Dr Melville Edelstein , who had devoted his life to social welfare among blacks . He was stoned to death by the mob and left with a sign around his neck proclaiming ' Beware Afrikaaners ' . The violence escalated as the students came under attack ; bottle stores , and beer halls – seen as outposts of the apartheid government – were targeted as were the official outposts of the state . The violence abated by nightfall . Police vans and armoured vehicles patrolled the streets throughout the night . Emergency clinics were swamped with injured and bloody children . The police requested that the hospital provide a list of all victims with bullet wounds . The hospital administrator passed this request to the doctors , but the doctors refused to create the list . Doctors recorded bullet wounds as abscesses . The 1 , 500 heavily armed police officers deployed to Soweto on 17 June carried weapons including automatic rifles , stun guns , and carbines . They drove around in armoured vehicles with helicopters monitoring the area from the sky . The South African Army was also ordered on standby as a tactical measure to show military force . Crowd control methods used by South African police at the time included mainly dispersement techniques . Casualties . The number of people who died is usually given as 176 with estimates up to 700 . The original government figure claimed only 23 students were killed , the number of wounded was estimated to be over a thousand men , women , and children . Aftermath . The aftermath of the uprising established the leading role of the ANC in the anti - apartheid struggle , as it was the body best able to channel and organise students seeking the end of apartheid . So , although the BCM ' s ideas had been important in creating the climate that gave the students the confidence to strike out , it was the ANC ' s non - racialism which came to dominate the discourse of the anti - apartheid movement amongst blacks . The perspectives set out in Joe Slovo ' s essay " No Middle Road " – written at just this time and predicting the apartheid government had only the choice between more repression and overthrow by the revolutionaries – were highly influential . The clashes also occurred at a time when the South African Government was being forced to " transform " apartheid in international eyes towards a more " benign " form . In October 1976 , Transkei , the first Bantustan , was proclaimed " independent " by the South African Government . This attempt to showcase supposed South African " commitment " to self - determination backfired , however , when Transkei was internationally derided as a puppet state . For the state the uprising marked the most fundamental challenge yet to apartheid and the economic ( see below ) and political instability it caused was heightened by the strengthening international boycott . It was a further 14 years before Nelson Mandela was released , but at no point was the state able to restore the relative peace and social stability of the early 1970s as black resistance grew . Many white South African citizens were outraged at the government ' s actions in Soweto , and about 300 white students from the University of the Witwatersrand marched through Johannesburg ' s city centre in protest of the killing of children . Black workers went on strike as well and joined them as the campaign progressed . Riots also broke out in the black townships of other cities in South Africa . Student organisations directed the energy and anger of the youth toward political resistance . Students in Thembisa organised a successful and non - violent solidarity march , but a similar protest held in Kagiso led to police stopping a group of participants and forcing them to retreat , before killing at least five people while waiting for reinforcements . The violence only died down on 18 June . The University of Zululand ' s records and administration buildings were set ablaze , and 33 people died in incidents in Port Elizabeth in August . In Cape Town 92 people died between August and September . Most of the bloodshed had abated by the close of 1976 , but by that time the death toll stood at more than 600 . The continued clashes in Soweto caused economic instability . The South African rand devalued fast and the government was plunged into a crisis . The African National Congress printed and distributed leaflets with the slogan " Free Mandela , Hang Vorster " , immediately linking the language issue to its revolutionary heritage and programme and helping establish its leading role ( see Baruch Hirson ' s " Year of Fire , Year of Ash " for a discussion of the ANC ' s ability to channel and direct the popular anger ) . International reaction . The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 392 which strongly condemned the incident and the apartheid government . Henry Kissinger , United States Secretary of State at the time , was about to visit South Africa at the time of the riot , and said that the uprisings cast a negative light on the entire country . African National Congress ( ANC ) exiles called for international action and more economic sanctions against South Africa . In the media . Images of the riots spread all over the world , shocking millions . The photograph of Hector Pieterson ' s dead body , as captured by photojournalist Sam Nzima , caused outrage and brought down international condemnation on the Apartheid government . The Soweto riots are depicted in the 1987 film by director Richard Attenborough , " Cry Freedom " , and in the 1992 musical film " Sarafina ! " . The riots also inspired a novel by Andre Brink called " A Dry White Season " , and a 1989 movie of the same title . In the 2003 film " Stander " , the Soweto riots start Captain Andre Stander ' s disillusionment with apartheid , and he seeks forgiveness from the father of a protesting student he killed . Radio . Twenty years on from the uprising , for June 1996 , the Ulwazi Educational Radio Project of Johannesburg compiled an hour - long radio documentary portraying the events of 16 June entirely from the perspective of people living in Soweto at the time . Many of the students who planned or joined the uprising took part , as did other witnesses including photographer Peter Magubane , reporter Sophie Tema , and Tim Wilson the white doctor who pronounced Hector Pieterson dead in Baragwanath hospital . The programme was broadcast on SABC and on a number of local radio stations throughout South Africa . The following year , BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service broadcast a revised version containing fresh interviews and entitled " The Day Apartheid Died " . The programme was runner - up at the 1998 European Community Humanitarian Office ( ECHO ) TV & Radio Awards and also at the 1998 Media Awards of the One World International Broadcasting Trust , and was highly commended at the 1998 Prix Italia radio awards . In May 1999 , it was re - broadcast by BBC Radio 4 as " The Death of Apartheid " with a fresh introduction , providing added historical context for a British audience , by Anthony Sampson , former editor of " Drum " magazine and author of the authorised biography ( 1999 ) of Nelson Mandela . Sampson linked extracts from the BBC Sound Archive that charted the long struggle against apartheid from the Sharpeville massacre of 1960 , through the riots of 1976 and the murder of Steve Biko , and right up to Mandela ' s release from prison in 1990 and the future president ' s speech in which he acknowledged the debt owed by all black South Africans to the students who gave their lives in Soweto on 16 June 1976 .