VANDERBIJLPARK. – Vandals have struck again at Phelindaba cemetery, targeting the heritage site where 69 Sharpeville massacre victims are buried.
The vandalism left the plaque commemorating the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)’s involvement in Human Rights Day shuttered in pieces.
In 2022, the same plaque was partially destroyed days before the commemoration on March 21, leaving party members broken and furious.
The fixing of the stone, saw the party coughing approximately R40,000 which didn’t last before a similar incident.
Speaking to Sedibeng Ster, PAC’s Regional Secretary General, Apa Pooe, said the attack on the plaque is meant to destroy their historic involvement of the day.
“A year before last, just before the commemoration day, we went to the gravesite for cleaning purposes and we found the stone vandalised. This year again, we found the plaque vandalized, and what’s interesting is that you can see that the damage was intentional,” he said.
Pooe said the day wasn’t recognized as a holiday and it took their efforts and campaigns to make the day what it is today.
“After the unbanning of political parties, it was only the PAC that commemorated March 21 popularly known as Sharpeville Day. PAC had to embark on many programmes to ensure that the day became a public holiday,” he said.
“We decided to have a wall of remembrance and approached the municipality to erect the plaque. We were permitted to erect it,” he added.
Pooe labeled the vandalism as a deliberate attempt to erase the significant role the PAC played in the struggle for human rights and dignity, particularly during the Sharpeville massacre.
“The then ANC government wanted to demolish the stone officially because they claimed we didn’t have permission to erect it. We produced letters and correspondence to which we were given permission. The vandalism of the memorial stone can mean it could be the very same people who didn’t want the stone there who vandalised it, or the alternatively it can be some extremist whites who do not need the history of that place to be known. The attack is not innocent. If you look at the vandalism, you can see there is a pattern,” he said.
Pooe condemned the act as nothing short of an assault on the very fabric of history and memory.
