NATIONAL NEWS - After 1994, March 21 was declared a public holiday, Human Rights Day, by the democratically elected government.

On 21 March 1960, thousands of people gathered to protest the pass laws that forced black South Africans to carry a pass book, or ‘dom pas’.

The book was a tool of the apartheid government – a tool which controlled the movement of black South Africans.

The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) planned a series of national protests against the pass laws on this day. Black South Africans were asked to gather outside police stations around the country and offer themselves up for arrest for not carrying their pass books. 

At Langa Township in Cape Town, 2 people were killed and 49 injured when police opened fire. 

At Sharpeville, the police attempted to disperse the unarmed, peaceful protestors by flying jets low over the crowd. When this failed, they opened fire on the crowd. 69 were killed, and hundreds were wounded. The police claimed they shot at the crowd when the protestors started to throw stones, but evidence shows that most people were shot in the back, and that police continued to fire even when the crowd had turned to flee their bullets. 

Human Rights Day seeks to ascertain that South Africans have developed an understanding of the various human rights they are entitled to and can protect themselves against human rights exploitation.

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