Annie Mapoma
THE government’s decision to rename “Sharpeville Day” on March 21 as Human Rights Day, has infuriated the Pan Africanist Congress.
March 21 has for 35 years been an unofficial stayaway day for black South Africans marking the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, when police shot dead 69 people and wounded 177 others during a pass demonstraton at the local police station.
The event was universally condemned, and began the process of South Africa’s political and economic
Says PAC Vaal region executive member, Amin Lutchka: “Asking us to replace Sharpeville Day and, June 16 1976, will be asking the African masses to forget their history. It will be in the interest of our political opponents to rename these events because they were not the major role players.
“We will always remember these two Africanist days that became the watershed for South Africa. It is these historical days that scared the regime out of their wits, and started to kill apartheid.”
He said the PAC was planning to make Tuesday’s Sharpeville commemoration the most memorable of all.
Sharpeville stadium where a memorial service will be conducted with PAC president Clarence Makwetu as the main speaker.