sharpeville massacre

8/3/2019 Sharpeville Massacre

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María Belén SoriaMaría Belén Soria

Sofía ProañoSofía Proaño

Omar OrtizOmar Ortiz



At the annual conference of the ANC held in Durban

on 16 December 1959, the President General of theANC, Chief Albert Luthuli, announced that 1960 wasgoing to be the 'Year of the Pass'. Through a series ofmass actions, the ANC planned to launch anationwide anti-pass campaign on 31 March 1960 the

anniversary of the 1919 anti-pass campaign.

Planning the 1960 anti-pass

campaigns: ANC and PAC



On 21 March 1960 at least 180 black Africans were

injured (there are claims of as many as 300) and 69killed when South African police opened fire onapproximately 300 demonstrators, who wereprotesting against the pass laws, at the township ofSharpeville. The Sharpeville Massacre, as the event

has become known, signaled prompted worldwidecondemnation of South Africa'sApartheid policies.



Early in 1960 both the ANC and PAC embarked on a

feverish drive to prepare their members and Blackcommunities for the proposed nationwidecampaigns. This marked the beginning of the rivalryover responsibility for organizing the march.



A build-up to themassacre



On 13 May 1902 the treaty which ended the Anglo-

Boer War was signed at Vereeniging; it signified anew era of cooperation between English andAfrikaner living in Southern Africa.



After the Second World War the Herstigte

('Reformed' or 'Pure') National Party (HNP) cameinto power (by a slender majority, created through acoalition with the otherwise insignificant AfrikanerParty) in 1948. Its members had been disaffectedfrom the previous government, the United Party, in

1933, and had smarted at the government's accordwith Britain during the war.



. By 1958, with the election of Hendrik Verwoerd,

(white) South Africa was completely entrenched inthe philosophy of Apartheid.

There was opposition to the government's policies.The AfricanNational Congress (ANC) was workingwithin the law against all forms of racial

discrimination in South Africa. In 1956 hadcommitted itself to a South Africa which "belongs toall."



The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) was formed inApril 1959, with Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe as

president.

The PAC and ANC did not agree on policy, and itseemed unlikely in 1959 that they would co-operatein any manner.



The day of the Massacre,mourning the dead and getting

over the shock of the event.



When the marchers reached Sharpeville's police

station a heavy contingent of policemen were lined

up outside, many on top of British-made Saracenarmored cars. Mr. Tsolo and other members of thePAC Branch Executive continued to advance - inconformity with the novel PACmotto of 'Leaders in

Front' - and asked the White policeman in commandto let them through so that they could surrenderthemselves for refusing to carry passes.



Initially the police commander refused but much

later, towards around 11h00, they were let through.

By mid-day approximately 300 armed policemenfaced a crowd of approximately 5000 people. At13h15 a small scuffle began near the entrance of thepolice station, a policeman was accidently pushedover and the crowd began to move forward to see

what was happening. . The firing lasted for approximately two minutes,

leaving 69 people dead and, according to the officialinquest, 180 people seriously wounded.

sharpeville massacre

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