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Celebrating our freedom
SA – Remembering the fallen heroes of the Sharpeville massacre.
![](https://images.caxton.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2017/03/human-rights.jpg)
Human Rights Month is commemorated in March to remind South Africans of the sacrifices that accompanied the struggle for the attainment of democracy.
On 21 March 1960, the community of Sharpeville and Langa townships embarked on a protest march to protest against pass laws.
The apartheid police shot and killed 69 of the protesters in Sharpeville, many of them shot while fleeing.
Scores were killed in other parts of the country.
The tragedy came to be known as the Sharpeville Massacre and it exposed the apartheid government’s deliberate violation of human rights to the world.
The democratic government declared 21 March Human Rights Day to commemorate and honour those who fought for our liberation and the rights we enjoy today.
Source: www.gov.za