Sharpeville Massacre (1960)

On 21 March 1960, a group of up to 20,000 people in the township of Sharpeville (in the Transvaal Province of South Africa) gathered to demonstrate against “pass laws” which had been introduced to control and direct the movement and employment of black South Africans. The laws had increasingly been used to enforce greater racial segregation.

The gathering prompted the South African Police to rush over 100 police reinforcements – armed with rifles and submachine guns – to the area, supported by four Saracen armoured personnel carriers.

Low-flying F-86 Sabre jets and Harvard Trainer aircraft flew within 100 feet of the ground, buzzing the crowd in an attempt to scatter it. The protesters responded by hurling stones at the police and rushing the barricades. Police officers attempted to use tear gas to repel these advances, but it proved ineffectual.

Between 5,000 and 10,000 demonstrators began to converge on the local police station, offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their passbooks.

As the crowd of unarmed protesters advanced toward the fence around the police station, police officers opened fire.

69 people were killed, and a further 180 were injured. A post-mortem revealed that 70% of the bullets had entered the victim’s backs, indicating that they were shot whilst running away. One woman was hit after she had run 100 yards.

The Verwoerd government claimed the police were attacked by a crowd armed with weapons, including firearms and that the demonstrators shot first, and the police were forced to fire in self-defence. But evidence shows the crowd were unarmed, and nothing more than a few sticks, umbrellas and stones was found after the shootings. Not a single witness at the subsequent inquiry substantiated the government story of shots being fired at them from the crowd.

British photographer Ian Berry was present at the scene, and his photographs of the massacre were immediately picked up by the international press and appeared in such publications as LIFE and Paris Match.

The uproar among South Africa’s black population was immediate, and the following week saw demonstrations, protest marches, strikes, and riots around the country. On 30 March 1960, the government declared a state of emergency. Many White South Africans were also horrified by the massacre, and a storm of international protest followed, including condemnation by the United Nations.

Victims were buried en masse in a ceremony attended by more than 5,000 people.

Police reports later claimed that young and inexperienced police officers had panicked and opened fire spontaneously, setting off a chain reaction that lasted about forty seconds. Few of the policemen present had received public order training, and some of them had been on duty for over 24 hours without rest.

In 1996, however, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (a restorative justice body assembled in South Africa after the end of apartheid) concluded; “the evidence of Commission deponents reveals a degree of deliberation in the decision to open fire at Sharpeville and indicates that the shooting was more than the result of inexperienced and frightened police officers losing their nerve.”

The massacre at Sharpeville marked a turning point in South Africa’s history, and the country became increasingly isolated in the international community. The event also played a role in the country’s departure from the Commonwealth of Nations in 1961.

Since 1994, 21 March has been celebrated as “Human Rights Day” in South Africa – a public holiday honouring human rights and commemorating the Sharpeville massacre.