Deputy President Paul Mashatile delivers a keynote address at the National Youth Day commemoration at the NWU Rag Farm Stadium, Potchefstroom. (Photo: Siyabulela Duda / GCIS) 
“It is only fitting that, since it’s June 16 that they would treat us like this. They were so brutal, they shot at us,” said Daniel “Mokwena” Letsie, a community leader in the Informal Settlements Committee, a grassroots organisation in Potchefstroom in North West.
Letsie’s statement comes only hours after police fired rubber bullets at residents who were marching to North West University’s Rag Farm Stadium, where Deputy President Paul Mashatile and several high-ranking government officials gathered for the National Youth Day commemorative event.
The Informal Settlements Committee and Solidarity Action Committee Collective released a joint statement on Monday, claiming that more than 67 people were injured.
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/012A9315-1.jpg "People respond to Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s address at the National Youth Day commemoration at the NWU Rag Farm Stadium, Potchefstroom. (Photo: Siyabulela Duda / GCIS)")
“Today’s Youth Day commemoration in Potchefstroom laid bare the deepening crisis of class apartheid in South Africa. What was meant to be a celebration of youth empowerment turned into a violent spectacle of state repression, as police fired rubber bullets at unemployed and impoverished black youth who sought to voice their struggles at the gates of the NWU Rag Farm Stadium,” the statement read.
Earlier, several news reports circulated that police using rubber bullets had dispersed a group of protesters, but Mokwena said that the march was not a protest.
“We were not protesting, that’s [nonsense]. We were the participants [in] the rally to commemorate June 16. We walked to the rally because we were not included in the transport, because we are marginalised people and informal settlements are not included in such things,” Mokwena said.
“The reason we went there was because we wanted to make the deputy president aware of the crisis we are living in here in Potchefstroom. We were amazed … we were walking peacefully,” he added.
He said that when they were about 1km from the stadium, the police opened fire on them.
Mokwena told Daily Maverick that the police’s use of rubber bullets echoed the actions of the apartheid government 49 years ago, when 575 young black learners were killed for resisting the apartheid regime’s oppressive education policies.
Read more: Mashatile declares South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis a ‘moral emergency’
Struggle for medical care
The community leader alleged that those injured were denied medical care and that the police threatened to arrest the injured if they sought medical attention at any of the local clinics.
“They tried to impose this level of fear on us so we would not go there. But by talking to the MEC of health, I was able to get some of the people medical care, and two of them were referred to the hospital,” Mokwena said.
In the statement, the group demanded:
- An immediate investigation into the police brutality at Potchefstroom, with those responsible held accountable;
- The resignation of the minister of police for authorising the violent suppression of peaceful protesters;
- A national jobs and basic income grant to address youth unemployment; and
- An end to elite capture of liberation commemorations – future Youth Day events should be held in working-class communities, not white enclaves.
In response to Daily Maverick’s questions to the Presidency, Mashatile’s spokesperson Keith Khoza said they were not aware of the incident.
“We are not aware of any protest in Potchefstroom. When the deputy president arrived, we were told of people who wanted to raise concerns with leadership attending the commemoration of June 16,” Khoza said.
Responding to Daily Maverick’s request for comment, North West SAPS’ Colonel Adele Myburgh said the police responded to disruptive action linked to protests that began last week.
“There was disruptive action reported in the early morning yesterday at about 06h00-06h30 in Ikageng. Roads were barricaded and Public Order Policing were called and the crowd were dispersed by usage of rubber bullets. They were not even close to the RAG farm, but about 15/20km away,” Myburgh said.
Myburgh added that she would check with the station commander if any assault cases regarding the incident had been opened against the police. DM