This year’s Human Rights Day marks exactly 61st anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, where 69 black people were brutally killed by apartheid police. To pay tribute to these victims, Gauteng Premier David Makhura will lay wreaths at the victim’s graves at the Pelindaba Cemetery in Sharpeville. He will be joined by the Mayors of Sedibeng and Emfuleni.
Sharpeville Massacre victims were killed during a protest against the apartheid government’s pass law on 21 March 1960. Meanwhile, this year’s Human Rights Day is commemorated under the theme: “The Year of Charlotte Maxeke: Promoting human rights in the age of COVID-19”,
The wreath laying will only be carried out at the Cemetery before the formal programme at the Vereeniging Civic Centre. This will be attended by a limited number of guests in accordance with the Covid19 regulations. The Civic Centre programme will be accompanied by a cultural programme which includes a theatre adaptation on human rights and Gender Based Violence (GBV).
This will be done in recognition of human rights activist, MmeCharlotte Maxeke. MmeMaxeke has been described as one of the nation’s selfless patriots who gave her life for South African democracy, freedom, and human rights.
Gauteng MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Mbali Hlophe says “We commemorate Human Rights Day to remind ourselves of the lengths we need to go, to rebuild our country amid the challenges of among others, Covid19, discrimination, poverty and more,”
“This, we need to do by taking leaf from selfless sacrifices of those who lost their lives and helped advance the course for freedom. “The day itself (21 March 1960), remains a watershed moment in the history of the liberation of South Africa.”
