10 facts about the Sharpville Massacre

1.) The Sharpville Massacre took place on 21 March 1960.

2.) On the day, a group of between 5,000 and 10,000 people converged at the local police station in the township of Sharpeville, offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their passbooks

3.) The protest was part of the countrywide anti-pass campaign launched by the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).

4.) The aim of the protest was to force the apartheid government to end the pass-laws which required Africans to carry passes all the time.

5.)It is believed that 180 people were shot while 69 others were killed.

6.) On 30 March 1960, the government declared a state of emergency, detaining more than 18,000 people, including prominent anti-apartheid activists who were known as members of the Congress Alliance.

7.) Various international protests followed the Sharpeville shootings, including sympathetic demonstrations in many countries.

8.) The Sharpeville massacre led to the banning of the PAC and ANC as illegal organisations.

9.) Sharpeville was the site selected by former President Nelson Mandela for the signing into law of the Constitution of South Africa on 10 December 1996.

10.) Human Rights Day on 21 March has been a public holiday in South Africa since 1994 observed to commemorate this important event in South African history.