Sharpeville residents still waitfor improvements 50 years on
March 22, 2010, Monday
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SHARPEVILLE Massacre victims' relatives raised flowers to the sky and placed them on gravestones yesterday to mark the 50th anniversary of the slaughter that became a turning point in the anti-apartheid struggle.
Mourners sang freedom songs that date back to the struggle against racist white rule. In 1960, police officers killed 69 black South Africans in Sharpeville, where protesters had burned the passbooks that the apartheid government required them to carry at all times.
South Africa's Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe also laid flowers at the memorial Garden of Remembrance, and spent time speaking with survivors and relatives of victims.
Many though wonder when the change they thought they were fighting for a half-century ago will come to Sharpeville. Residents in recent weeks have set fire to tires in the streets to protest the lack of basic services such as electricity and running water.
"Our lives started changing with Nelson Mandela's release, but people are still financially struggling and finance is still in white people's hands," said Abram Mofokeng, who was 21 when officers opened fire on protesters in 1960, shooting demonstrators including women and children as they ran away. Mofokeng still bears the scar where a bullet entered his back.
The massacre drew world condemnation of the ruthless treatment of South Africa's disenfranchised black majority and led the apartheid government to outlaw the African National Congress. The ANC has governed South Africa since the country's first all-race elections in 1994.
But 16 years after the end of apartheid, many black South Africans feel that they have not benefited from the economic growth that has made many government and ANC officials rich.
Some gathered in the streets of Sharpeville and sang of their displeasure with the ANC, but no violence had erupted.
"People's lives haven't changed. There are so many things we don't have ... a community hall, a sports ground ... People are unhappy," said Phillip Makhale, caretaker of the memorial site.
Mourners sang freedom songs that date back to the struggle against racist white rule. In 1960, police officers killed 69 black South Africans in Sharpeville, where protesters had burned the passbooks that the apartheid government required them to carry at all times.
South Africa's Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe also laid flowers at the memorial Garden of Remembrance, and spent time speaking with survivors and relatives of victims.
Many though wonder when the change they thought they were fighting for a half-century ago will come to Sharpeville. Residents in recent weeks have set fire to tires in the streets to protest the lack of basic services such as electricity and running water.
"Our lives started changing with Nelson Mandela's release, but people are still financially struggling and finance is still in white people's hands," said Abram Mofokeng, who was 21 when officers opened fire on protesters in 1960, shooting demonstrators including women and children as they ran away. Mofokeng still bears the scar where a bullet entered his back.
The massacre drew world condemnation of the ruthless treatment of South Africa's disenfranchised black majority and led the apartheid government to outlaw the African National Congress. The ANC has governed South Africa since the country's first all-race elections in 1994.
But 16 years after the end of apartheid, many black South Africans feel that they have not benefited from the economic growth that has made many government and ANC officials rich.
Some gathered in the streets of Sharpeville and sang of their displeasure with the ANC, but no violence had erupted.
"People's lives haven't changed. There are so many things we don't have ... a community hall, a sports ground ... People are unhappy," said Phillip Makhale, caretaker of the memorial site.
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