IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

Human Rights Day is a public holiday in South Africa celebrated on 21 March each year. On this day in 1960, the community of Sharpevilletownship embarked on a protest march against pass laws. The pass laws were designed to segregate the population, manage urbanisation, and allocate migrant labour. Black South Africans over the age of 16 were forced to carry pass books when outside their homelands. The pass laws limited the movements of not only black African citizens, but other racial groups such as coloureds and Indians.

These population groups were forced to live in designated separate areas, which were especially in non-white areas. On the day of the march, the apartheid police shot and killed 69 of the protesters and 189 were injured. The protest came to be known as the Sharpeville Massacre and it exposed the apartheid government’s violation of human rights to the world. Human Rights Day commemorates and honours those who fought and died for the liberation and the rights that South Africans enjoy today. Human Rights Day is also commemorated to reinforce the
commitment to the Bill of Rights, chapter 2 in the Constitution of South Africa which stipulates the rights of the people of South Africa in terms of life, equality and human dignity.

In this month’s issue of Mbalo Brief, our educational article is based on three generations of adults and their participation in education, their highest educational attainment and labour market outcomes. The three generations of adults are Generation X adults (born between 1960 and 1979 who were 39–58 years old in 2018), the Millennials (born between 1980 and 1999 who were 19–38 years old in 2018) and the Born-free generation (born in 1994 and later who were 0–24 years old in 2018). Also have a look at our monthly crossword puzzle and solutions for the February 2020 issue.

Articles published in this issue are based on results of industry surveys conducted for the months ranging from December 2019 to January 2020.

Download Mbalo Brief March 2020