#JUSTICEFORCWECWE – Today I fell in love more with my people. I didn’t see fragmentation amongst them, but I saw unity in pain. I saw a black youth united in echoing of its pain, demand for justice, and fear of living in a society where humanity doesn’t exist. I am proud we can still seek justice without remorse.
A child’s pain echoed from the shores of the Eastern Cape to the streets of Braamfontein in Johannesburg. Most importantly, the child’s pain is being echoed by a community of students, women in dominance, based on how does a seven-year-old girl get sexually molested in a school and nothing has been done to find out who did it? Even the official route of the justice system seems to be a void instrument in this case as it unfurls since October 2024. If this is not student activism at full throttle, I don’t know what it is. In my claim I am vindicated by a female student who stood tall in all black at the entrance of Noswall Hall holding a blue placard written “A child’s pain echoes so loud, so must the justice system. JusticeForCwecwe.”
My recording of this event demanding justice for Cwecwe is on the perspective of highlighting the power and morale of a neglected community in mainstream, young in body and mind, inquisitive enough but fearful, standing in unity to prove that they as a community are conscious of the ills of society and they intervene if needed. I am highlighting a moment which serves to prove that the emerging youngings in universities as a community are not far from unity. However, in whatever context you might think of it, the student community is inextricably within society-we feel society’s pain, hunger, injustice, and fear-and so it acts promptly when injustice is louder than justice. In my account of this fact, I am vindicated by a female student in black and white who stood tall with a placard echoing “I am a mother to girls.” That’s how deep it cuts for our sisters with daughters.
Even thou I can emphasize much on the failing justice system, the psychological trauma now imprinted on Cwewe’s identity and consciousness, or even the ends of living in an unequal society where justice is commercial, the prevailing thought in mind is that of student activism. It is that of students realizing that they role in society goes far beyond lecture rooms. Here’s a simple conceptualization. The student community is a class of post-colonial/apartheid youngings in universities particularly focused on identity of self in a colonial institute, also fighting against the designed fragmentation. This is an emerging hugely politicized, structured, and disciplined class of youngings who are rapidly growing each year across all higher institutes of learning in South Africa (SA) and Africa. Even thou this political agent class of students still battles for a clearly recognized voice in mainstream, and recognition of its importance amongst others, it never seems to disappoint when it sees the normative urgency to echo injustice, abuse, discrimination, hunger, corruption, and all social ills engulfing society. In this account of growing activism of students and they ability to infiltrate and bring justice to social ills, I am vindicated by the #MustFall movement of 2015 which brought to life the discussion of decolonized education and insourcing of the university staff. I am also vindicated by Uyinene Mrwetyana’s tragedy where the university community, led by students, initiated a full campaign to free society of gender-based violence raising awareness all over. Contemporary, I am vindicated by the #JusticeForCwecwe movement where youngings are themselves demanding justice for society.
The proud moment is seeing a fragmented society molding itself back together to confront its own internal social ills of shallow humanity. Goosebumps and chills when you record this molding being led by youngings of an emerging class, aftermaths of 1976 Soweto.
The student community has intervened and demanded full lengths of justice for Cwewe. It has mobilized and echoed the child’s pain, and the parents’ pain. The onus is now on society and civil to protect its children and rights as the Not In My Name civil rights society is doing. The onus is also now on the state to initiate justice as it did by deregistering Bergview College. The onus is further on the justice system to learn that it is not dealing proactively with the inequalities and severity of society’s crimes. In my account that youngings as a conscious disciplined student community stood for Justice for Cwewe, I am vindicated indeed by the events of March 30, mid-day in Johannesburg-Braamfontein where the student community made louder the call for justice.
–MediaHouse150
