Women’s Jail, Constitution Hill
Part of Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival 2026
26 JUNE 2026
18h00 – 19h00
CONSTITUTION HILL – JOHANNESBURG
The Uprising: 50 Years On — Aluta Must Not Continue
Fifty years later, the struggle must finally answer for itself.
The Uprising: 50 Years On — Aluta Must Not Continue is a theatre production marking the 50th anniversary of the June 16, 1976 Soweto Uprising.
Inspired by George Twala’s story, the production is told through the collective experience of the Soweto 11 Trialists, the student-led resistance against Afrikaans as a medium of instruction, the journey into exile and uMkhonto we Sizwe, and the unresolved contradictions of democratic South Africa.
The production challenges the repeated chant “Aluta Continua”, echoing across generations, and repositions it as a warning rather than a victory slogan.
Fifty years later, the play asks:
If the struggle has become a permanent condition, did we win — or did we inherit unfinished freedom?
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About the Production
At the heart of the play are the Soweto 11 — eleven student leaders tried for sedition following the 1976 uprising.
Their trial becomes the central dramatic device: a site of memory, resistance, loss and unresolved justice.
Through realism, testimony, memory and contemporary reflection, the production moves between 1976 and the present, asking what has been inherited, what remains unresolved, and what freedom demands now.
This is not a memorial. It is a mirror.
THEMES
The production explores:
- Youth resistance and the legacy of 197
- The Soweto 11 Trialists
- Memory, testimony and unresolved justice
- Exile, MK and the cost of freedom
- Gendered erasure and women in resistance
- Disability, dignity and dehumanisation
- Generational struggle from 1976 to 2015 to 2026
- The danger of romanticising struggle
Why This Work Matters
The true commemoration of June 16 is not only ritual or nostalgia. It is reckoning.
This production restores the political weight of June 16 by asking audiences to confront the cost of inherited struggle, the unfinished work of freedom and the responsibility carried by every generation.
Fifty years ago, children confronted a regime.
In 2026, this production confronts a nation.
Masingita Masunga
Masingita Masunga is an award-winning media personality, entrepreneur, speaker, producer and global thought leader whose work centres powerful human stories.
She is the owner, host and producer of Vantage Point and Masingita with Confidence, platforms known for bold conversations, leadership insight and truth-telling.
As a Black woman entrepreneur with a disability, Masingita uses her voice to challenge limits, shift mindsets and advance access, dignity and justice. Her work is courageous, deeply human and rooted in possibility.
