SHARPEVILLE.- All roads will lead to Sharpeville when the country commemorates Human Rights Day, historically linked with March 21, 1960, and the events of Sharpeville.

This event will be at Sharpeville’s George Thabe Stadium on Friday and attended by who’s who in politics with President Cyril Ramaphosa also expected to make an appearance. The Sharpeville Massacre saw 69 demonstrators killed when police opened fire on a crowd of people who assembled outside the Sharpeville Police Station.

The Sharpeville people protested against the pass laws.

The tragedy came to be known as the Sharpeville Massacre and it exposed the apartheid government’s deliberate violation of human rights to the world. This was one of the most painful moments in the country’s history and everything came to a standstill. The democratic government declared March 21 Human Rights Day to commemorate and honour those who fought for our liberation, and the rights we enjoy today.

The ANC, EFF and PAC are among the political parties that will be in Sharpeville to commemorate the day. The month of March is a heightened period in South Africa to mark Human Rights Month, commemorated under the 2025 theme, “Deepening a culture of social justice and human rights”.

In December 1996, two years after the end of apartheid, South Africa enacted a new constitution whose Bill of Rights affirmed the values of dignity, equality, and freedom for all South Africans. It was signed by then president, Nelson Mandela, in the township of Sharpeville at George Thabe Stadium, very close to where the massacre had happened.