Sharpeville and the Vaal

Where Police Fired On An Unarmed Crowd Outside The Police Station On 21 March 1960 And Killed Sixty Nine People, Many Shot In The Back While Running The Day That Ended The Era Of Non Violent Protest In South Africa, Brought The First State Of Emergency And The Banning Of The ANC And PAC, And Is Now Commemorated As Human Rights Day. The Constitution Was Signed Here In 1996 For That Reason · Sharpeville, Gauteng

On the morning of 21 March 1960 a crowd gathered outside the police station here to protest against the pass laws, which required every black South African to carry a document controlling where they could be. The police opened fire. Sixty-nine people were killed and about a hundred and eighty wounded, and the post-mortems showed that a great many had been shot in the back while running away. The consequences ran in every direction: the first state of emergency, the banning of the ANC and the PAC, the abandonment of non-violent protest as a strategy, and South Africa's expulsion from the Commonwealth. The United Nations marks the day as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, South Africa marks it as Human Rights Day, and when the final Constitution was signed in 1996 it was signed here deliberately. Be clear what is here now: a memorial, a cemetery, a modest exhibition.

In the Vaal triangle south of Johannesburg, between Vereeniging and the Vaal river, Sharpeville, Gauteng, South Africa

THE SHARPEVILLE MEMORIAL AND THE GARDEN OF REMEMBRANCE are open ground on Seeiso Street near the old police station site, free and accessible most of the day. The exhibition space and the interpretive centre keep daylight weekday hours and HAVE HAD PERIODS OF CLOSURE AND UNCERTAIN FUNDING, so telephone or ask locally rather than driving out on spec. The Phelindaba cemetery, where most of the sixty-nine are buried, is a working municipal cemetery. 21 MARCH - HUMAN RIGHTS DAY - is the one day the whole site is busy, with official commemorations and large crowds, and is both the best and the hardest day to visit. Vereeniging four kilometres north has fuel, shops and places to eat. It is about an hour from Johannesburg on the N1 and R59, and MALARIA-FREE.

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