SEDIBENG.- The Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) will, on March 21, lead the national commemoration of the Sharpeville Massacre.

Apa Pooe, PAC Secretary General, said that this is one of the most defining and painful moments in the history of the African liberation struggle.
Pooe said that those who died were martyrs who paid the ultimate price in the struggle for the liberation of the people and the restoration of African dignity and land.

“Our programme of the day will commence at 07:00 at the Phelindaba Cemetery, where wreaths will be laid at the graves of the Sharpeville martyrs. This will be followed by a march along Seeiso Street to the Sharpeville Memorial Site, symbolically retracing the footsteps of the historic 1960 anti-pass campaign.”

The day’s activities will culminate in the main commemorative event at Dlomo Dam at 11:00.

Pooe called on their members, supporters, community members, youth formations, and progressive forces to join in this solemn commemoration to honour the memory of the fallen and to recommit ourselves to the unfinished struggle for land restoration, economic justice, and genuine African liberation.

“Sharpeville is not merely a date on the calendar. It is a reminder of the courage of our people, the brutality of the apartheid system, and the revolutionary leadership of the PAC under Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, whose call for Africans to stand up against injustice ignited a global awakening against apartheid. The legacy of Sharpeville demands that we continue the struggle with the same courage and determination displayed by those who laid down their lives in 1960.”