PICS: PAC commemorates Sharpeville

PAC members leaving Phelindaba cemetery after their commemoration. The PAC held a separate event than the ANC.

On 21 March 1960 the Sharpeville massacre occurred when the PAC (Pan Africanist Congress) organised a protest in which black Africans burnt the pass books which restricted them from going in certain areas.

What had started as a peaceful protest soon became violent, as a result of which apartheid-minded South African police opened fire on the crowd. Sixty nine black people were killed and 178 wounded by police during the violence.

Sharpeville Day has been commemorated since then on 21 March, and since 1994 has been the official Human Rights Day public holiday.