Speaker
Honourable members
"The commission finds that the police deliberately opened fire on an unarmed crowd that had gathered peacefully at Sharpville on 21 March 1960 to protest against the pass laws. The commission finds further that the South African Police Service (SAPS) failed to give the crowd an order to disperse before they began firing and that they continued to fire upon the fleeing crowd, resulting in hundreds of people being shot in the back. As a result of the excessive force used, 69 people were killed and more than 300 injured. The commission finds further that the police failed to facilitate access to medical and/or other assistance to those who were wounded immediately after the march.
"The commission finds that many of the participants in the march were apolitical, women and unarmed and had attended the march because they were opposed to the pass laws. The commission finds, therefore, that many of the people fired upon and injured in the march were not politicised members of any political party, but merely persons opposed to carrying a pass.
"The commission finds that many of those injured in the march were placed under police guard in hospital as if they were convicted criminals and, upon release from hospital, were detained for long periods in prison before being formally charged. In the majority of instances when persons so detained appeared in court, the charges were withdrawn.
"The commission finds the former state and the minister of police directly responsible for the commission of gross human rights violations in that excessive force was unnecessarily used to stop a gathering of unarmed people. Police failed to give an order to disperse and/or adequate time to disperse, relied on live ammunition rather than alternative methods of crowd dispersal and fired in a sustained manner into the back of the crowd, resulting in the death of sixty-nine people and the injury of more than 300."
Speaker, these were the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission regarding the Sharpeville Massacre, 50 years ago on 21 March 1960.
Today we commemorate this day as Human Rights Day. The world commemorates this day, by decision of the United Nations General Assembly, as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Sharpeville in many ways represents a painful reminder of where we come from, what we have achieved but also how much yet remains to be done.
Many lines of our history, both painful as well as hopeful, intersect at Sharpeville.
We are told that Sharpeville was named after John Lillie Sharpe who came to South Africa from Glasgow, Scotland, as secretary of Stewarts and Lloyds. Sharpe was elected to the Vereeniging Town Council in 1932 and held the position of mayor from 1934 to 1937.
The main reason for the establishment of Sharpeville was the relocation of people from top location to an area away from Vereeniging because it was felt black people were too close to Vereeniging for comfort. Unfortunately, because the project was only intended to relocate residents of top location and not to house additional people it did not alleviate the housing shortage.
What was planned as a five-year resettlement project beginning in 1935, in fact, took 20 years. In 1941, 16 000 people lived in top location. The building of the houses only started in 1942. A sub-economic housing scheme was used for Sharpeville. Water was free but 14 houses shared one tap and there were two bathing complexes in the township. By 1946 some of the houses had their own taps and bathrooms.
The township was first called "Sharpe Native Township" but it changed to Sharpeville in the 1950's. With the implementation of the apartheid government’s Group Areas Act 21 of 1950, it was estimated that over 3.5 million South Africans were forcibly removed from 1960 to 1982. Of the top location residents, blacks were moved to Sharpeville, coloureds to Rus-ter-vaal and Indians to Roshnee. The Indians were the last ethnic group to leave top location, the last residents being moved to Roshnee in 1974. In 2004, the people of top location were compensated for the loss of their properties and land and an amount of R60,000 per house was paid to all former residents or dependants.
Information taken from http://www.vaaltriangleinfo.co.za/towns/sharpeville_6a.htm]
The other line of our history that runs through Sharpeville is the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging (commonly referred to as Peace of Vereeniging) on 31 May 1902. This peace treaty ended the South African War between the Boer Republics and the British Empire. This treaty laid the foundation for the Union of South Africa, created on 31 May 1910, another milestone in our history, the centenary of which we mark this year. (See note one below)
I mention this because the creation of the Union of South Africa represented the legal-constitutional basis for colonialism of a special type, or internal colonialism. It was the act of union that united and included whites as citizens of the union and attempted to divide and excluded Africans.
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has remarked that, "The Union Act of 1910 establishing the union of South Africa finally disenfranchised our people from ever claiming a right to land or participation in the affairs of the government.
Thus the birth of the ANC on 8 January 1912 was a direct reaction to these countless grievances and complaints. Prixley ka Isaka Seme summed it up this way: “We are one people. These divisions, these jealousies, are the cause of all our woes and of all our backwardness and ignorance today.”
He continued to state that, “The white people of this country have formed what is known as the union of South Africa, a union in which we have no voice in the making of laws and no part in their administration.” This was a call to unity of a new type on African soil. This was an anti-colonial unity. This was the birth not only of the ANC but of a new nation deep in the womb of a colonial setup. Right from the beginning the ANC was assigned to lead the creation of a new loyalty under changed conditions of struggle."
It is this struggle that led to a more hopeful line of our history also passing through Sharpeville. It was here that former President Nelson Mandela signed the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa fourteen years ago, on 10 December 1996.
This Constitution represents the antithesis of everything that the Union of South Africa and the Sharpeville Massacre represented. It bears testimony to the fact that, "the liberation struggle by oppressed communities, even in the midst of bitter confrontation, developed moral values of human compassion and solidarity far beyond the narrow confines of its opposition to the apartheid social system. It represented something good, not just something better than apartheid. It asserted the humanness of the human spirit the search for societies at peace within and among themselves."
Strategy and tactics of the ANC: 2007
It echoes the values of contained in the Freedom Charter; I would like to refer, in particular, to the equality clause, one of the most powerful statements of human equality, both formal as well as substantive, in any constitution in the world.
The equality clause provides that, “Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law. Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms. To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures designed to protect or advance persons or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination may be taken. The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.
Statutory institutions such as the Commission for Gender Equality, the Human Rights Commission and the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural and Linguistic Communities, have been created to assist in ensuring the realisation of these and other rights. Legislation has also been passed combat discrimination and gives citizens access to equality courts in the event of suffering such discrimination.
The strategy and tactics of the ANC identifies as one of the most critical tasks the creation of a legitimate state which derives its authority from the people, through regular elections and continuing popular participation in the processes of governance. Mobilised around a clear vision of the kind of society we wish to become, the nation should act in partnership each sector contributing to the realisation of the common good. The means should be put in place for citizens to exercise their human rights, and for the checks and balances necessary in a law-governed society.
The democratic state should also have the organisational and technical capacity to realise its objectives. (Strategy and tactics of the ANC: 2007).
Government is committed to work with independent institutions created to support our constitutional democracy such as the Human Rights Commission, the Commission on Gender Equality, Office of the Public Protector, without compromising their independence. We have a political responsibility to support these institutions. It is for this reason that we will do everything required of us by the law and the Constitution to assist in ensuring the proper, effective and efficient functioning of all these institutions.
In his State of the Nation Address last year President Jacob Zuma identified five national priorities. These are the creation of decent work and sustainable livelihood, education, health, rural development and food security as well as the fight against crime and corruption.
These priorities are mutually dependent and reinforcing. They require united action by all of us to achieve. They require an active and organised civil society working together with a strong, efficient and clean public service in a developmental state.
It will be so much more difficult to achieve the goal of improved health care if there are corrupt staff in our hospitals and clinics that steal medicine and grant tenders to charlatans who fail to deliver or who bleed the scare resources of the state by overcharging for basic items through tenders that were awarded through corrupt means.
We will struggle to achieve the improved education that our nation needs if there are teachers and administrators who corrupt the process of purchasing stationery and text books and literally take bread out of the mouths of schools children by eating money intended for school feeding programmes.
We have established a number of mechanisms to fight corruption, maladministration and the inefficient use of public resources such as the special investigating unit, anti-corruption hotlines, whistle blowing legislation, specialised units in the South African Police such as the Hawks. We urge all citizens to make use of these mechanisms in addition to the office of the Public Protector.
We call upon all local leaders to assist community members to address problems facing them. If they cannot be assisted, we expect these leaders to assist in the process of referring complaints to the office of the Public Protector.
In the same vein, we encourage law-enforcement agencies and other government departments to work with and assist the Office of the Public Protector in its investigation of the complaints that are brought to it.
Former President Mandela said very clearly that, “People must be encouraged to speak out against maladministration with the surety that their complaints will be taken seriously and in confidence.”
In conclusion I would like to read an extract from the poem "Die kind wat doodgeskiet is deur soldate by Nyanga" by Ingrid Jonker, that was quoted by former President Mandela during his first State of the Nation Address:
"Die kind is nie dood nie
nòg by Langa nòg by Nyanga
nòg by Orlando nòg by Sharpville
nòg by die polisiestasie in Philippi
waar hy lê met 'n koeël deur sy kop
Die kind is die skaduwee van die soldate
op wag met gewere sarasene en knuppels
die kind is teenwoordig by alle vergaderings en wetgewings
die kind loer deur die vensters van huise en in die harte
van moeders
die kind wat net wou speel in die son by Nyanga is orals
die kind wat 'n man geword het trek deur die ganse Afrika
die kind wat 'n reus geword het reis deur die hele wêreld
Sonder 'n pas"
Speaker, let us on this occasion, collectively, as the elected representatives our people, rededicate ourselves to work together with everyone in our society to make sure that the Constitution, the child that we together gave birth to and collectively are responsible for nurturing, continues to grow into a giant that will live in Nyanga, Sharpeville, Philippi and all corners of our nation and continue to inspire people the world over.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
16 March 2010
Source: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (http://www.justice.gov.za/index.html)
