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Tag: Human Rights Day

Yet Another Human Rights Day in Sharpeville
19Apr By News SANo Comments
Opinion

Yet Another Human Rights Day in Sharpeville

By Dr Lesiba Tumishang Ledwaba: The brutal massacre of Sharpeville residents by racist, trigger-happy apartheid policemen on 21 March 1960 continues to be a part of societal discourse that highlights apartheid hegemony that was cemented and immensely reliant on extreme violence for its existence and unjustified longevity. The scars and remnants of the massacre are not only embedded in the commemoration, mourning, celebration, and remembrance of 21 March, but also in the ambience of place and in symbols of memory, which come alive to accompany speeches by state presidents and representatives of political parties in Sharpeville. It is by far the testimonies of survivors and community members that reverberate the lived reality of the massacre and set the ...
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READING AS A RIGHT: Nelson Mandela Foundation champions literacy on Human Rights Day
22Mar By News SANo Comments
News

READING AS A RIGHT: Nelson Mandela Foundation champions literacy on Human Rights Day

By Sitha Maliwa: In a country still echoing with the painful memory of the Sharpeville Massacre, where the fight for dignity and equality reshaped a nation, a quieter yet equally urgent struggle continues - the fight for the right to read. On Human Rights Day, 21 March 2026, the Nelson Mandela Foundation reignited this conversation, declaring literacy not as a luxury but as a fundamental human right that can determine a child’s future. Hosted in Johannesburg, the Foundation’s special edition of its Making Reading Fun programme brought together children, families, and authors in a vibrant celebration of storytelling and learning. Yet behind the joyful atmosphere lay a stark reality: the majority of South African Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning, lea...
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Rights Are Not Enough: Towards a South Africa Where People Truly Flourish
21Mar By News SANo Comments
Lifestyle, Opinion

Rights Are Not Enough: Towards a South Africa Where People Truly Flourish

By Prof. Narnia Bohler-Muller: On 21 March 1960, sixty-nine people were killed at Sharpeville for daring to assert their humanity. Sixty-six years later, we pause to honour that moment and to take stock of the constitutional democracy emerging from its ashes. Our Constitution is a remarkable document. It enshrines justiciable socioeconomic rights, commits the state to transformation, and opens with a founding value that has no equivalent in any other constitutional order: human dignity. And yet, for the majority of South Africans, the distance between the rights they hold on paper and the lives they are able to live remains vast, stubborn, and morally intolerable. This Human Rights Day, I want to suggest that the problem is not only one of implementati...
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REMEMBRANCE: South Africans reflect on human rights by remembering those who sacrificed lives
21Mar By News SANo Comments
News

REMEMBRANCE: South Africans reflect on human rights by remembering those who sacrificed lives

By Mpumzi Mshweshwe Image: Thamsanqa Mrwebi South Africa today honoured the memories of those who were killed and injured by the apartheid police 65 years ago by promoting and cherishing their own rights. The peaceful protests against the apartheid government and its pass laws were met with violence that resulted in the deaths of 69 people at Sharpeville in 1960. It was only after South Africa’s first democratic elections that this historic date was recognized and marked as Human Rights Day. Speaking at the Derick Ferreira Stadium in Kariega in the Eastern Cape, Deputy President, Paul Mashatile outlined and reminded South Africans about the significance of this day. He said that Human Rights Day is a day when the Sharpeville Massacre is remembered, and it is also a day when ou...
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Sharpeville Massacre Commemoration to Honour Untold Stories and Champion Human Rights
11Mar By News SANo Comments
Entertainment

Sharpeville Massacre Commemoration to Honour Untold Stories and Champion Human Rights

By Sitha Maliwa Image: Thamsanqa Mrwebi On March 21, 1960, the world witnessed a tragic event that would forever alter the course of South African history - the Sharpeville Massacre. For over sixty years, the narrative surrounding this tragedy has centred on the 69 lives lost at the hands of apartheid police during a peaceful protest against oppressive pass laws. However, recent investigations have unveiled a more harrowing truth: the death toll exceeded 69, with countless men, women, and children affected by the violence that day.In remembrance of this pivotal moment, the Sharpeville Foundation is organising commemorative activities as part of the 65th anniversary. These events not only aim to honour the victims but also seek to ensure that...
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