Remembering Sharpeville, celebrating Human Rights Day

A year before the Sharpeville Massacre (which is commemorated on March 21 as Human rights Day), then ANC leader, Chief Albert Luthuli, declared 1960 as the Year of the Pass.

During the annual conference of the ANC on December 16, 1959 in Durban, the party planned to launch a series of countrywide mass action campaigns against pass laws. This was due to take place on March 31 – the anniversary of the 1919 anti-pass campaign.

A breakaway group from the party, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) held its inaugural conference in Johannesburg where it was announced that the party would launch its own anti-pass campaign.

Both parties began their campaign early in 1960 to gather members and black communities from around the country to join them in their campaign. The PAC told its supporters to leave their pass books at home on the proposed date and gather at the police station ready for arrest. The premise was that if thousands gathered and were apprehended, the jails would fill up and lead to a subsequent standstill of the economy – the campaign slogan being NO BAIL! NO DEFENCE! NO FINE!

An exact date of when the protest would take place had not been confirmed until a press conference was hosted by PAC leader, Robert Sobukwe, on Saturday, March 19. That Monday, March 21, would be the day the PAC would embark on the anti-pass campaign with a peaceful protest.

Countrywide protests were anticipated but no-one had planned for the outcome which changed South African politics and had a huge global impact.

The morning of March 21 saw PAC members and other protesters in Sharpeville gather other people to join them in their procession. There have been several reports that indicated that some were coerced to join but the majority were there willingly.

PAC leaders gathered in a field near Sharpeville Police Station and were joined by other members. When they saw that they were a reasonably sized group, they proceeded to the police station chanting freedom songs and slogans.

Upon their arrival they were greeted by policemen who had expected them, one of the PAC leaders then asked if the crowd could be let into the station as they surrendered themselves for not carrying their passes.

Although initially refused by the police commander, the crowd was soon given access. The crowd by then had grown to about 5 000 while the police contingent had grown to about 300 officers.

As protesters were moving into the station, it is believed that an officer was accidentally pushed over and the crowd began to push forward to see what had happened. According to police the protester was throwing a stone and one office panicked and fired a shot, which was duly followed by shooting which lasted a few minutes and left 69 dead and 180 seriously wounded.

The police cited the incident which took place earlier in Durban where nine officers were shot as a reason for why they were jittery during the protest.

While most police officers used batons against protestors, the officers in Sharpeville used live ammunition to deal with a crowd of people who were unarmed and were there to host a non-violent protest.

An official inquiry into the events of the day revealed that most people were shot in the back which implied they were fleeing from the scene.

In the aftermath of the massacre, a state of emergency was declared by the end of March and thousands of people were arrested across the country. By April the same year both the ANC and PAC were banned and members were forced to go underground. Many people eventually went into exile. What followed was the infamous armed struggle as the two parties had declared that the days of peopleful protest had ended. This went on for 30 years until the National Party was forced to start negotiations with leaders, such as Nelson Mandela, they had labelled as terrorists.

In 1996 Sharpeville saw another poignant gathering when the newly elected ANC-led government chose it as the sight to sign the country’s new Constitution by Nelson Mandela on May 8, 1996.

As a result institutions which protect and promote human rights such as the Commission for Gender Equality, the Human Rights Commission and the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural and Linguistic Communities, also now exist.

March 21, 2001 saw the unveiling of the Sharpeville human rights memorial on the site where people were shot that fateful afternoon.

Information obtained from www.sahistory.org.za and www.southafrica.info