South Africa Marks 50th Anniversary of Sharpeville Massacre

21 March 2010

Wounded people lie in the street in Sharpeville, near Vereeniging, where at least 180 black Africans, most of them women and children, were injured and 69 killed, when South African police opened fire on black protesters, 21 Mar 1960

South Africans are marking the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, during which police shot into a crowd of unarmed civilians protesting racial discrimination under apartheid. The event marked a turning point in the anti-apartheid struggle.

South Africans are marking the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, during which police shot into a crowd of unarmed civilians protesting racial discrimination under apartheid. The event marked a turning point in the anti-apartheid struggle.

Choirs sang in the cool Sunday morning as family members laid flowers at tombstones of the victims of the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre.

On that Sunday 50 years ago, 69 unarmed people were killed and hundreds wounded when police fired into a crowd of 5,000 black South Africans.

They had gathered at the police station of the impoverished town south of Johannesburg to protest pass laws that restricted their movements.

A similar demonstration in Langa, near Cape Town, was also violently suppressed.

Deputy-President Kgalema Motlanthe told the crowd the incidents changed the nature of the anti-apartheid struggle.