There was nothing humane about the Human Rights Day celebrations that took place on Monday.

For as long as our people are unemployed, for as long as they are homeless, for as long as they are hungry, nothing will be humane about Human Rights Day. Yet another Human Rights Day commemoration has come and gone but still there has been no difference in our people’s lives. One is inclined to believe that: ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’. I and many South Africans watch with disappointment as year in and year out the powers that be remove the locals from this important day in their calendar, the Sharpeville Shooting Day.

It does not take a stupid to know the significance of this day for the people of this region, yet the powers that be refuse to recognise this.
This day commemorates the Sharpeville Massacre of 21 March 1960, when police opened fire on a peaceful protest, killing 69 people and wounding 180 under the oppressive apartheid regime.

This must not be distorted!

This is a day on which we remember the importance of human life and dignity, and the responsibility we have to protect these basic rights. There was nothing humane about the killings of our forefathers!
For years the people of Sharpeville have been complaining that they are only remembered when this day comes. They are starved of opportunities unlike many of their peers in historical places in South Africa. You do not find the situation that the young and old of Sharpeville find themselves anywhere in this country, history was made in this place and this treatment by authorities needs to come to an end. The powers that be must not try to deviate from the truth, they must not try to mislead the generations that are to come, our history must not be removed from us just like that!

We are who we are because of our history, because of where we come from.
The day should remain Sharpeville Shooting Day because there is nothing humane about March 21!
Lerato wa ha Serero…