What we need to remember on Human Rights Day
South Africa’s Human Rights Day is a time when South Africans should reflect on how far we have come as a nation, especially regarding our basic human rights.
AS another Human Rights Day comes around, it’s important for us to understand why the national holiday was instated in the first place. It may be a great convenience to have a day off of school or work, but the true purpose of the day is for us to reflect on and remember the events of March 21, 1960.
The violation of people’s human rights was at an all-time high in South Africa in 1960, just eight years before the Pass Laws Act was passed, requiring Black South Africans over the age of 16 to carry a passbook, known as a ‘dompas’, everywhere and at all times. A year after that, in 1953, the Bantu Education Act was enacted, taking effect from January 1, 1954, governing and greatly restricting the education of Black South Africans.
These were just two of many laws and acts that were passed during apartheid in South Africa to strip people of their agency, dignity and motivation to push back against the various forms of oppression being imposed on non-white South Africans, on a social and institutional level.
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On March 21, 1960, people’s frustrations came to a boiling point, and a group of 5 000 to 10 000 people banded together and went down to the local police station in the Sharpeville township located in the then-Transvaal Province in Gauteng without their passbooks, offering themselves up for arrest in a mass act of defiance.
By 10:00, a large crowd had gathered, and the atmosphere was initially peaceful and festive. Fewer than 20 police officers were present in the station at the start of the protest. Later, when the crowd grew, this prompted about 130 police reinforcements, supported by four Saracen armoured personnel carriers, to be rushed in. The police were armed with firearms, including Sten sub-machine guns and Lee-Enfield rifles. There was no evidence that anyone in the gathering was armed with anything other than stones.
It was the police’s attempt to arrest a protester that prompted the crowd to surge forward, and without any concern for the lives of the protesters, some of whom were children, the police opened fire on the crowd.
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The official figure is that 69 people were killed, including 10 children, and 180 injured, including 19 children. The police shot many of the protestors in the back as they turned to flee, causing some to be paralysed.
This horrific chain of events is what we must remember on Human Rights Day, and it’s crucial for us to reflect on the mistakes that were made during the apartheid regime in South Africa so we don’t make the mistake of repeating them.
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