Rights come with responsibilities, says teen
We spoke to some teens on what Human Rights Day meant to them.
WHILE South African’s around the country celebrate Human Rights Day today, Berea Mail chatted to some young people to get their feelings on the significance of the day.
Mlondi Buthelezi, a pupil at Hunt Road Secondary, said he believed Human Rights Day was an important holiday. “As a teenager, its important to know our human rights and use them as a guide on how to behave and what your rights are as a human being and citizen of South Africa.
Wendy Mthetwa, a pupil at Durban Girls’ Secondary said, “I feel we have too many rights given to us and we tend to abuse them both in school and at home. We need to realise that there are responsibilities that go with the rights. It is also a day to remember what happened at Sharpeville.”
Human Rights Day is steeped in South African history and linked to 21 March 1960, and the events of Sharpeville.
The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) proposed an anti-Pass campaign to begin on 21 March 1960 were black men proposed to gather at Sharpeville without their reference books and present themselves for arrest. The order was given to disperse, after which the police opened fire with sharp-point ammunition on the crowd of men, women and children. Following the Sharpeville massacre, a number of black political movements were banned by the Nationalist government, and the resistance movement went underground.
The day will continue to be remembered as 69 people died and 180 were wounded when police fired on the peaceful crowd that had gathered to protest against the Pass laws. It was more than a protest against the Pass Laws of the apartheid regime. It was an affirmation by common people, rising in unison to proclaim their rights, and it became an iconic date in our country’s troubled history.
