The Uhuru Movement sends our deepest condolences to the families of the fourteen deceased children who were in a brutal and fatal car crash, which occurred between a scholar transport and a large lorry on Monday morning, January 19. Nothing we say can bring back the lives of our children or ease the grief of their parents. In our response to this tragedy, we do not wish to stir up feelings of our people; what we want to do is hold up the need to change how structures and systems function so that this never happens again.
These are some questions that we want to raise to the ones in power: the road that this tragedy occurred on, what are you prepared to structurally change there? Is there any accountability from the ones in charge of roads and infrastructure (municipality officials)? Is the government willing to offer repair and a self-criticism to the victims of this neocolonially-induced “accident” or are the current systems so blameless that only the drivers involved are to be criticized for these consequent deaths?
For the families of the Sebokeng Fourteen, we demand:
- An improvement of the road where the accident happened—industries like Arcelor Mittal (who specialize in steel, construction, mining etc.) traffic their cargo through this road daily and should be responsible for increasing its width and quality. People directly implicated here are the official, Alfredo Sandamela, who is in charge of Emfuleni’s infrastructure planning and development, as well as the premier of Gauteng province, Andrek Panyaza Lesufi.
- An end to the theft of funds by the Emfuleni Municipality’s officials as they are most responsible for proper structures and thus equally responsible for the lack thereof.
- A cessation of anti-African/negative media influence. We demand that the SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) and all affiliated media outlets in this country stop popularizing songs glorifying alcohol, negative vices, irresponsibility and addiction.
- An end to the taxi industry’s obsession with capitalism—making drivers live under pressure because of the rat-race, forcing them to prioritize money above caring for the lives of our people!
- That these demands be addressed in honor of the victims of this governmental crime—the families of the deceased and the black community.
Neocolonialism claims the lives of African children
Under colonialism, there is no such thing as an “accidental death”.
It should be known that if social systems are responsible for the developments within them—then things such as accidents should be seen as the direct result of the government’s social engineering. If the South African government intended to prevent loss of life on the roads, they would have done it—putting systems in place to naturally affect the people’s mindsets positively. However, their inability to do this shows that they are not interested in improving African/human life; they choose instead to serve colonialists and their own selfish middle-class interests.
Colonial society is notorious for limiting life for the colonized African masses, while it naturally specializes in uplifting and developing the colonizers’ quality of life. For example, in Europe, the roads are engineered to become wider and safer, whereas in our Africa (Sebokeng) we are supposed to accept these detrimental, shabby roads as if that’s the best that we deserve. But the material to build roads in Europe comes from Africa—this is what we, everyday people, need to understand.
The relationship between this accident and the culture pushed by capitalism—alcohol and competition
Added to this issue of infrastructure is the social conditioning that accompanies this structural violence against our people—this is in the form of South Africa’s media publishing of toxicity as a form of “black culture.” The alcoholism that’s popularized this way and the mentality of competition (a dog-eat-dog mindset) are subliminally pushed in the black community—but never encouraged in the white community. This has to do with colonial interests to loot Africa and depopulate it simultaneously.
Due to this psychological attack on our community, December 2025 saw R414 million DAILY being spent on alcohol alone—this has to do with SABC’s conditioning of our people towards escapism instead of finding the root of our depression. This was the case with the young African driver who cost these children their lives—he himself was under the influence of colonial media that tells black people to just kill ourselves in every way possible!
The Vaal has very few functional roads wherever black people are concerned—this speaks volumes about what the people need to focus on. At the memorial service of the Sebokeng Fourteen, the masses wanted to hear of how these parents could best be cared for and as well as preventive measures. However, the government’s response had no substance as to how structures can change and how we can ensure that they do.
So many lives get swallowed up because of the colonial mode of production—and it is not enough to say that the accident was merely caused by a driver’s ego and folly (however, it is important to bring these factors up in order to validate the feelings of the grieving families); a structural change has to be what we are looking for as those standing with the families of their children.
A driver we interviewed sympathized with the families of the children and suggested that since it is common to find young drivers loudly playing toxic music when coming to ferry children to and fro, it might be best if we set a practical age and mentality as part of the vetting of transporters for our children.
Challenge colonial mental conditioning; our children deserve better!
As black people, we must challenge the colonial mentality that has been imposed on us to prevent such carnage from occurring ever again. When we think of education, we often think of schools and classrooms, but this is only an institution where education may (or may not) occur. Education happens on the streets, it can happen at home or through media—it is everywhere.
And so we must begin to look at what we are constantly educating ourselves—and we must question whether it is loving towards our people or it is hurting them, because anything that affects them will affect us and vice versa.
It is very telling from how both drivers involved—as well as those people who were on social media making light of this heavy death—that the black community needs real education so that we can love ourselves and each other in a sincere and healthy way.
Our community has to begin educating itself on how to relate to each other, not just in times of stress and hardship but as a daily practice of taking our lives into our own hands. When black children are not acting lovingly towards themselves or others, this is an opportunity to educate them. When a car accident happens, instead of being on social media—being responsible and helping to save the people is what each of us need to educate ourselves to do. This is the kind of system, media and mentality Africa and African people need right now.
Justice to the families of the Sebokeng Fourteen; justice to all African people!
All power to the people!
Black Power to the African community!
Uhuru!
