PAC leader calls for a new land deal to benefit 'African people'

PAC president Narius Moloto on Thursday called for a "new deal on land" so that the blood shed by the victims of the Sharpeville massacre would not be in vain.

Speaking at the National Human Rights Day commemoration in Sharpeville on Thursday, Moloto said South Africa could not be a normal nation while the majority were still landless.  

"There must be a new deal on the land that will benefit African people," he said.

Moloto joined President Cyril Ramaphosa in commemorating the massacre that claimed the lives of 69 PAC supporters in 1960 when police opened fire on protesters.

He also joined Ramaphosa in laying a wreath at the memorial site before proceeding to the main event where he addressed the crowd.

"Codesa on the land did not do justice to the African people,” Moloto said in reference to the negotiations held between 1990 and 1993 to end apartheid.

Moloto said the freedom and independence enjoyed today did not come for free.

"We are a nation where the majority is landless... we cannot be a normal nation," he said.

He said access to land would expand the economy to the benefit of African people.

"In that way the blood of the heroes and heroines of Sharpeville would not be in vain," Moloto said.