State repression, and the ensuing lull, gave the impression that the movement sparked by the student uprising had been quelled. However, the quiescence that followed the banning of organisations in 1977 represented a mere pause in the emergence of a formidable anti-apartheid movement. The events of 1976 politicised thousands of young people across the country who came to represent a new generation of committed activists that would constitute the backbone of the struggle.

Although Thami Zitha was still in primary school in 1976, and so was not directly involved in the struggles, the uprising had a major influence on his life. For him, as for many of his generation, the Soweto uprising was the critical moment of his political awakening.

Thami Zitha was one of a new layer of youth who were becoming committed to struggle, but were still desperately searching for political answers to their many questions about apartheid, past struggles and the way forward. They found some of the answers among an older generation of political activists, some of whom were stalwarts of the liberation movements and had been imprisoned in the major crackdown in the early 1960s. Joe Gqabi, for example, spent more than a decade on Robben Island and on his return to Soweto he began to educate young people and draw them into an ANC network. Thami Zitha's political mentor was Peter Raboroko, one of the leaders of the Pan African Congress, the PAC.