'At some stage all hell will break loose'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/19/south-africa-sharpeville-massacre-anniversary
Half a century after massacre that shifted course of South African
history, township is still bristling with anger
David Smith in Sharpeville
19 March 2010
"People were shot. We went there and found people lying all over the
ground. But something amazing happened. There was a black cloud. For
15 minutes it rained heavily after the shooting. It washed all the blood … "
Ikabot Makiti's voice trails off into quiet sobs. The former student
activist cannot forget the strewn corpses of men, women and children,
or the mass burials in £15 coffins that followed. Half a century has
passed but memories of the Sharpeville massacre still run deep.
Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the day that changed the course
of South African history. When police opened fire on thousands of
unarmed protesters, killing 69 and injuring about 180, they
inadvertently provided a catalyst for decades of armed struggle and
forced the rest of the world to confront the iniquity of apartheid.
White minority rule finally collapsed in 1994. Two years later it was
in Sharpeville that the country's first black president, Nelson
Mandela, signed a new constitution.
Named after the Glaswegian immigrant John Lillie Sharp, Sharpeville
is a township about 30 miles south of Johannesburg. Black people were
forcibly relocated here and in 1960 it had only two tarred roads with
electric lighting.
On 21 March that year the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), a breakaway
organisation from the African National Congress, mobilised black
people across the country to demonstrate against laws that controlled
their movement.
Thousands gathered outside the local police station in Sharpeville,
challenging the police to arrest them for being without the pass
books, or dompas, they were meant to produce on demand.
Makiti, who at the time was a 17-year-old PAC member, recalled that
the demonstrators were in high spirits, holding umbrellas and
throwing their hats in the air.
"There was jubilation around, not anything that suggested people were
angry or wanting to fight," said the grandfather, who later spent
five years imprisoned on Robben Island. "They were waiting for the
answer and the answer came with the bullet. I think the police just
panicked because of the mob."
Without warning the police opened fire on the crowd. Most of those
who died were shot in the back as they fled. Piet Tshabalala, 86,
recalled: "Something hit me on the leg and I saw blood. The pregnant
woman next to me lay in a pool of blood after being shot in the stomach."
The bullets hit another pregnant girl, 16-year-old Ziphora Mameho,
but she survived. She said: "The people were demanding a response and
the police started shooting. I ran for a few metres but was shot in
the leg. The person I was running with died.
"The other guys commanded me to stay down because otherwise I'd be
shot. I said I'd rather die because I didn't have a leg to use. I
remember an Afrikaner [white] policeman stopping and saying: 'Now
you've received the Africa you were fighting for.'"
Mameho, now 76, rolls down a sock to show uneven bones beneath her
scarred skin. She spent 18 months in hospital, where doctors inserted
her short rib in her leg, and she gave birth to a son, Samwell,
without complications.
The anniversary is celebrated every year as Human Rights Day across
South Africa. This year Kgalema Motlanthe, the deputy president, will
address a commemorative rally in Sharpeville.
But political freedom has not delivered economic freedom for its
residents. The roads are potholed and some still lack tarmac, rubbish
is strewn on wasteland and the stadium where Mandela signed the
constitution is run down. Unemployment is rife and two schools recently closed.
"Apartheid made us despair. Even though today our kids have better
lives, we struggle," said Mameho. "We suffer because of the hardships
and we don't have money for medical attention."
Last month people took to the streets, burning tyres in protest at
poor service delivery, and once again the crack of police gunfire was
heard in Sharpeville .
Hofni Mosesi, an executive of the Concerned Residents of Sharpeville,
said: "It blurs the difference between the apartheid government and
our government. We feel bitter about it if it happens today, if it's
done by the government we voted into power."
He said that while the ANC remembers Sharpeville on the anniversary,
it is neglected for the other 364 days of the year. "This township is
just good as far as 21 March is concerned; otherwise, nothing else,
forget about it."
Asked if he felt the sacrifices of 1960 had been in vain, Mosesi
said: "To us it was worth it. It could be that it's not worth it to
our present authorities, because it if was worth something our
township wouldn't be in the state it's in at the moment. The
government has betrayed that legacy.
"At some stage all hell will break loose. We don't know when. There
will come a point when we say we have done everything in our power."
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