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African press review 16 June 2016

South Africans mark 40 years of the Soweto uprising, but the racial tensions which fanned the youth revolts of 1976 are still fan youth anger. Meanwhile, the judge in Pristorius murder trial sets date for final verdict.

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 We start in South Africa where the press marks 40 years of the Soweto Uprising, with a grim reminder that the racial tension that reared its ugly head during the protests are still the driving force behind simmering youth anger.

The Citizen

The paper recalls that on that fateful day, students from three schools in the black township outside Johannesburg "took to the streets in what was intended to be a peaceful march against the enforced use of the Afrikaans language as a medium of instruction".

The number of children shot dead by police was reported at 176 with  other estimates citing figures of up to 700, while the number of wounded was reportedly around one thousand people.

"It’s still aluta continua", says the Citizen. The paper points to a clamour by young activists today for the radical restructuring of society. This is  "evident in the #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall" movements as well as in the hundreds of service-delivery protests spearheaded by young, often unemployed, people which have broken out across the country.

Pretoria News

The newspaper speaks to a veteran of the Soweto Uprising . Barney Mokgatle, one of the original student leaders who organised the June 16 march  and who says the "youth of his time were fearless, burnt trains and travelled in the thick of night to plot the downfall of the apartheid master".

As he put it they were "eager groups of individuals whose eyes had been focused on the dream of freedom, but they never crossed the line to destroy schools and clinics".

Meanwhile, the disgraced athelete Oscar Pistotius remains a major front-page story for the papers as his retrial for murdering his model girl friend continued in Pretoria.

Mail and Guardian

The publication says the "convicted murderer" will finally hear his sentence for shooting Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013 when he appears in court on July 6.

According to Mail and Guardian, Judge Thokozile Masipa who is presiding over the high court in Pretoria  annouinced her decision on Wednesday.

The Johannesburg paper says the State prosecutor told the court earlier that a lengthy jail term was appropriate for the iconic  athlete. Under South African law, Pistorius faces a minimum 15 year sentence if found guilty of murder.

Times Live

The newspaper reports that the North Gauteng High Court on Wednesday "granted an order lifting the ban of six photographs of Pistorius' girl friend" Reeva Steenkamp which were taken after her murder.

According to Times Live, Reeva’s father‚ Barry Steenkamp‚ had asked during his testimony on Tuesday, that the "media show the world the wounds inflicted Pistorius inflicted on his daughter". Times recalls that when the case was heard in 2013‚ the "court decided‚ at the request of the prosecution‚ to ban the images".

The Star

The publication highlights a deposition made during the trial on Wednesday by Reeva Steenkamp's cousin Kim Martin when she was called up as the prosecution's final witness. The paper says that she told the high court in Pretoria that Steenkamp "was not in love with the athlete, despite his own claims and those of the couple's friends".

 

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