With freedom comes responsibility

 

Freedom Day is celebrated on Thursday 27 April this year. To mark the occasion the Jeppe Schools held their customary Freedom Day Assembly on Wednesday, at the boys school.

There were representatives from Jeppe High School for Girls and Jeppe High Preparatory School in attendance and they were, as is traditional, addressed by a high profile speaker.

This year the speaker was historian and author Zikhona Valela, author of ‘Now you know how Mapetla died’, the story of the 1976 murder in police custody of Mapetla Mohapi, the first Black Consciousness leader to die in detention.

Her message to the assembly was that Freedom Day should serve as both a reminder of injustices of the past and a tribute to those who fought against them, but also as a call to action for everyone to continue to oppose injustice and bad governance.

She made a particular point of telling her mainly male audience that they can begin their contribution by making the world a safer place for girls and women.

There were speeches by student leaders from the girls and boys schools, as well as poems read by Jeppe Prep learners and musical performances by the Jeppe High School for Girls drummers and the Boys School’s marimba band.