Sharpeville Massacre 1960

• The Vaal Triangle was a centre of coal mining and site of South Africa's state-owned Iron and Steel Corporation factories
• The African residents of Evaton, the biggest and most established township in the area, staged a bus boycott in 1956 when 15 people were killed
• Sharpeville, founded in 1942, had been planned as a model township, with more facilities than usual, including a clinic and library
• Three major factors politicised the Sharpeville community


  • In 1958, numbers were swelled by the arrival of about 10,000 people removed from another location by force under the Group Areas Act. Little new housing was available so there was a large and angry addition to Sharpeville's population. Rents were also increased.
  • The area was favoured by migrant workers from Lesotho, a separate British colony. They had even more insecure rights than people from the South African rural areas - yet they were equally dependent on wages. Some came illegally and pass raids were stepped up in 1959.
  • A PAC branch was founded in Sharpeville in 1959 by a few able organisers, notably Nyakane Tsolo, a trade unionist. When Sobukwe called at short notice for the campaign against passes on 21 March 1960, the local PAC could respond quickly to spread the word through house-to-house visits and leaflets. PAC membership in Sharpeville was probably not more than a few hundred but they set up a task force that both encouraged participation and threatened those who wanted to go to work, including bus drivers who would carry commuters.
• On the night of 20 March 1960, youths moved onto the streets and a policeman was stabbed. The police responded in force, dispersing crowds with baton charges and gunfire. A meeting at the football stadium was broken up by police at midnight; two protestors died.
• On the morning of 21 March about 5,000 people gathered outside the fence surrounding the Sharpeville police station
• PAC leaders requested the police to arrest them all. They and some of the crowd seem to have believed that, confronted with the impossibility of this task, the government would announce the suspension of the pass laws
• The crowd were by no means all PAC members and subsequent interviews revealed that many were there out of curiosity. Some gave the thumbs up salute linked with the ANC while others shouted the PAC slogan 'Izwi Lethu' (the land is ours). Journalists and photographers were also present, including Robert Sobukwe's biographer Benjamin Pogrund, who thought that the crowd was relaxed and friendly.
• Many eyewitnesses to whom I spoke told me that the people gathered about the Police Station were in a happy mood. Very few Africans had gone to work, and an idle, holiday atmosphere pervaded the town. Some were singing and occasionally some shouted slogans. I have been told that no one was carrying weapons, and that no one was carrying stones.
• When Nyakane Tsolo refused to order the crowd to disperse he was arrested. This episode led the crowd to surge forward. Under examination at the subsequent inquiry, Pienaar admitted that he failed to warn the crowd of the danger of an armed response if they did not disperse. He lined up the police and ordered them to fire. Those protestors at the front of the crowd could not move back.
• There is conflicting evidence suggesting a local gangster shot twice in the air around this time. However, it is likely that members of the police line were simply uneasy that the police station fence was under pressure. Pienaar said, probably truthfully, that he did not give the order to fire and that he did not think that the situation had merited it. It seems that shortly before 2 pm. one of the policemen, though perhaps not a senior officer, did shout 'Fire'. There was a barrage from rifles, revolvers and a machine gun mounted on a Saracen. They fired a first round into the front row of the crowd then a second volley at people running away so that many were shot in the back. At least 69 died and 187 were injured.
• The police did not behave well after the shooting, Witnesses accused them of placing stones on the station side of the fence to provide evidence that these had been thrown before police opened fire. The police were also accused of kicking and even killing wounded people. Sobukwe and some of his key supporters were arrested in Orlando, Soweto, but for the most part, the police did not arrest people.
• I went to the police station like all the others. The atmosphere was cheerful, people were happy, singing and dancing, while the people were marching through the streets, policemen were chasing them and using tear gas to try and separate them. Despite this we marched straight to the police station, still singing and shouting. Once we were there, we kind of waited for police to come and take our passes and arrest us. I was standing at the main gate, and had a clear view of what was going on inside. I actually saw the officers loading their guns.
• The massacre provoked international denunciation. On 1 April 1960, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning Sharpeville and calling for a reversal of apartheid and racial discrimination.
• Stayaway


  Similar to a strike in that workers are encouraged to stay away from their workplace. However, rather than protesting at their workplace they would not go to work at all, to avoid reprisals, police action or arrest.
• On 30 March, faced with turbulence at home, and criticism abroad, the government declared a State of Emergency.
• On the same day 30,000 Africans marched in an orderly and non-violent demonstration six miles along the main highway from Langa to the edge of central Cape Town. Some, led by Kgosana, gathered at the police station in Caledon Square. Nearby, the whites-only parliament was in session, debating the protests. They were protected by a cordon of Saracens, armed police and troops. The police promised that the Minister of Justice would meet a PAC delegation if the crowd dispersed.
• Anxious to avoid a violent confrontation, Kgosana persuaded the marchers to turn back. He was double-crossed by the police and the meeting never happened. On returning with a small group later that afternoon, Kgosana was arrested.
• The armed forces were subsequently deployed to break the strike and impose order, they used gratuitous violence.
• Next day a further protest was mounted at Cato Manor in Durban and activists tried to stop workers from going to town. A series of clashes ensued over the next few days between police and protestors and between protestors and those wishing to go to work.
• Though the PAC was trying to light a fuse, they were still committed to peaceful confrontation. Significantly, the government had shown that they were prepared to enforce their authority and the National Party, if anything, became more determined to impose apartheid in the next few years.