MUKULA – While the majority of South Africans were celebrating Youth Day last Thursday, youths of Mukula-Satane decided to celebrate the day by cleaning the graves of the heroes and heroines who died in the liberation struggle.

Youths converged at the graveyard with their working implements as early as 06:00 and they cleaned the graves until 13:00.

Rudzani Ramugondo, a community leader at the village, explained why the youths of Mukula-Satane decided to celebrate Youth Day in this unusual manner: “Although we understand that Youth Day is a national celebration, our youths decided to honour our fellow brothers and sisters who died in the struggle for liberation in this exclusive style. There are architects of the liberation struggle who gave their lives to the struggle of humankind and it is important to honour them. This village had sons and daughters of the soil who died for our benefit and the youths decided to honour them in this unusual fashion. Most of the dead comrades did not live to receive our praises and we believe the cleaning of the graves will make their souls to rest in peace. The youths have been very supportive because they know they are now enjoying the fruits of hard labour planted by our fallen brothers and sisters…”

One of the youths who took part in the cleaning of the graveyard, Humbulani Ndou (24), said he felt it was his social duty to pay tribute to the liberation icons of Mu-kula-Satane who did their best to change the lives of the poor South Africans.

“Due to the situation in our country in the past, it was not easy to honour our young heroes while they were still alive. This is the best respect we could ever give them, to appreciate their contributions in the improvement of our lives. We are now free because of them and we believe that it will not be proper to let their contributions go without notice.”

The function nearly resembled a well-organized rally as the youths worked tirelessly with their tools while singing freedom songs until they finished up their job.