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Sharpeville massacre
The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960, when police opened fire on a crowd of people who had assembled outside the police station in the township of Sharpeville in the then Transvaal Province of the then Union of South Africa (today part of Gauteng) to protest against the pass laws.
A crowd of approximately 5,000 people gathered in Sharpeville that day in response to the call made by the Pan-Africanist Congress to leave their pass-books at home and to demand that the police arrest them for contravening the pass laws. The protestors were told that they would be addressed by a government official and they waited outside the police station as more police officers arrived, including senior members of the notorious Security Branch. At 1.30 pm, without issuing a warning, the police fired 1,344 rounds into the crowd.
For more than fifty years the number of people killed and injured has been based on the police record, which included 249 victims in total, including 29 children, with 69 people killed and 180 injured. More recent research has shown that at least 91 people were killed at Sharpeville and at least 238 people were wounded. Many people were shot in the back as they fled from the police.
The massacre was photographed by photographer Ian Berry, who initially thought the police were firing blanks. In present-day South Africa, 21 March is commemorated as a public holiday in honour of human rights and to commemorate the Sharpeville massacre.
In 2024, the area where the massacre occurred and the memorial became a World Heritage Site, known as Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites.
Sharpeville was first built in 1943 to replace Topville, a nearby township that suffered overcrowding where illnesses like pneumonia were widespread. Due to the illness, removals from Topville began in 1958. Approximately 10,000 Africans were forcibly removed to Sharpeville. Sharpeville had a high rate of unemployment as well as high crime rates. There were also youth problems because many children joined gangs and were affiliated with crimes instead of schools. Furthermore, a new police station was created, from which the police were energetic to check passes, deporting illegal residents, and raiding illegal shebeens.
South African governments since the eighteenth century had enacted measures to restrict the flow of Africans into cities. Pass laws, intended to control and restrict their movement and employment, were updated in the 1950s. Under the country's National Party government, African residents in urban districts were subject to "influx control" measures. Individuals over sixteen were required to carry passbooks, which contained an identity card, employment and influx authorisation from a labour bureau, name of employer and address, and details of personal history. Leading up to the Sharpeville massacre, the National Party administration under the leadership of Hendrik Verwoerd used these laws to enforce greater racial segregation and, in 1959–1960, extended them to include women. From the 1960s, the pass laws were the primary instrument used by the state to detain and harass its political opponents. These laws forced Africans to carry special identification that police and other authorities could check at any time. The government used passes to restrict where Africans could work, live and travel.
The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), led by its founding President Robert Sobukwe, marched peacefully and unarmed to the Orlando police station in Soweto and demanded to be arrested as they were not prepared to a carry dompass, on 21 March, simultaneously a university student, a member of the PAC, Philip Ata Kgosana led the very same march in the Cape Province in Langa Township.
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Sharpeville massacre
The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960, when police opened fire on a crowd of people who had assembled outside the police station in the township of Sharpeville in the then Transvaal Province of the then Union of South Africa (today part of Gauteng) to protest against the pass laws.
A crowd of approximately 5,000 people gathered in Sharpeville that day in response to the call made by the Pan-Africanist Congress to leave their pass-books at home and to demand that the police arrest them for contravening the pass laws. The protestors were told that they would be addressed by a government official and they waited outside the police station as more police officers arrived, including senior members of the notorious Security Branch. At 1.30 pm, without issuing a warning, the police fired 1,344 rounds into the crowd.
For more than fifty years the number of people killed and injured has been based on the police record, which included 249 victims in total, including 29 children, with 69 people killed and 180 injured. More recent research has shown that at least 91 people were killed at Sharpeville and at least 238 people were wounded. Many people were shot in the back as they fled from the police.
The massacre was photographed by photographer Ian Berry, who initially thought the police were firing blanks. In present-day South Africa, 21 March is commemorated as a public holiday in honour of human rights and to commemorate the Sharpeville massacre.
In 2024, the area where the massacre occurred and the memorial became a World Heritage Site, known as Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites.
Sharpeville was first built in 1943 to replace Topville, a nearby township that suffered overcrowding where illnesses like pneumonia were widespread. Due to the illness, removals from Topville began in 1958. Approximately 10,000 Africans were forcibly removed to Sharpeville. Sharpeville had a high rate of unemployment as well as high crime rates. There were also youth problems because many children joined gangs and were affiliated with crimes instead of schools. Furthermore, a new police station was created, from which the police were energetic to check passes, deporting illegal residents, and raiding illegal shebeens.
South African governments since the eighteenth century had enacted measures to restrict the flow of Africans into cities. Pass laws, intended to control and restrict their movement and employment, were updated in the 1950s. Under the country's National Party government, African residents in urban districts were subject to "influx control" measures. Individuals over sixteen were required to carry passbooks, which contained an identity card, employment and influx authorisation from a labour bureau, name of employer and address, and details of personal history. Leading up to the Sharpeville massacre, the National Party administration under the leadership of Hendrik Verwoerd used these laws to enforce greater racial segregation and, in 1959–1960, extended them to include women. From the 1960s, the pass laws were the primary instrument used by the state to detain and harass its political opponents. These laws forced Africans to carry special identification that police and other authorities could check at any time. The government used passes to restrict where Africans could work, live and travel.
The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC), led by its founding President Robert Sobukwe, marched peacefully and unarmed to the Orlando police station in Soweto and demanded to be arrested as they were not prepared to a carry dompass, on 21 March, simultaneously a university student, a member of the PAC, Philip Ata Kgosana led the very same march in the Cape Province in Langa Township.
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