Sharpeville rally focus on moral regeneration

By M.S. Prabhakara

CAPE TOWN, MARCH 30. March 21 is designated in South Africa's official calendar as Human Rights Day. The day, observed as Sharpeville Day during the liberation movement, was re-designated and began to be so observed after the advent of democracy. It is one of the 12 holidays since 1996.

The day commemorates the massacre at Sharpeville, the black township near Vanderbijilpark south of Johannesburg, in 1960 when the security forces fired upon an unarmed crowd protesting against the hated pass laws. Officially 69 persons were killed and over 200 injured in the incident.

The observance of the day was marked by different, even opposing, perspectives. This is not surprising. The countrywide protests on that day in 1960 were initiated by the Pan Africanist Congress, then in contention with the African National Congress to be recognised as the pre-eminent liberation organisation, in a pre- emptive move against the ANC's anti-pass campaign scheduled to begin on March 31. In the event, the apartheid regime declared a State of Emergency and banned both the ANC and the PAC and several other organisations.

Sharpeville is now universally acknowledged as a defining moment in the history of the liberation movement.

While the PAC's distancing itself from the official commemoration of the day is rooted in its own history, rather more interesting is the observance of the day by political parties like the National Party and the Democratic Party, now united as the Democratic Alliance. The DP, as much as the NP, was responsible for the massacre in that it was part of a so-called `Parliament' that `legislated' apartheid, legitimising the regime.

A most unique `Christian Rally', addressed among others by the DA Leader, Mr. Peter Marais, Mayor of the Cape Town Unicity, marked the event in Cape Town. Described as an `inter- denominational' rally rather than an `inter-faith' rally and attended by over 50,000 persons, it was held in the Newlands stadium.

Participants included high profile sportspersons like Ms. Penny Heynes, the Olympic gold medallist swimmer and Mr. Peter Pollock, veteran cricketer, who wear their Christianity on their sleeves, and the well-known gangster, Rashied Staggie, who claims to be a `born-again Christian'. The focus of the rally, as of the DA rally in Pretoria, was on crime, and the need for the `moral regeneration'.

This too is natural. Indeed, any attempt to relate the undeniable horrors of every day life for the majority of South Africa to the material realities of a history going back to over three centuries of colonial theft and dominance would clearly be against the `feel good factor' that animates the official commemorations, which over the years have come to look more like festive celebrations.

This is even more so with the observance of Youth Day, June 16, marking the uprising and massacres in Soweto on that day in 1976. No wonder a recent function to honour the heroes of Soweto, including Mr. Nelson Mandela and Ms. Winnie Madikizela- Mandela, was held in Sandton, the upmarket shopping and convention centre, and not in that benighted township.

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Section  : International
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