Human Rights Day
Yesterday was Human Rights Day. It is also the anniversary of day the police opened fire on a crowd surrounding the police station at Sharpville. This caused the deaths of 70+ and wounded many, many more. The event caused an international outcry and perhaps marked the beginning of the end of Apartheid in South Africa.
As always a Nation emerging from a ‘struggle’ for political change has a memory ordained for service to the state. Forgotten is the Shell House incident where IFP marchers were fired upon by guards protecting the ANC headquarters. Also forgotten is the civil war that raged here in Natal in the lead up to the elections in 1994. There are many more incidents where the death toll far exceeded Sharpville.
One does not condone what happening at Sharpville. But one cannot help muse that we would not have had a holiday yesterday if the crowd had broken through the outer fence and slaughtered the policemen.
Just a thought.
Yesterday was Human Rights Day. It is also the anniversary of day the police opened fire on a crowd surrounding the police station at Sharpville. This caused the deaths of 70+ and wounded many, many more. The event caused an international outcry and perhaps marked the beginning of the end of Apartheid in South Africa.
As always a Nation emerging from a ‘struggle’ for political change has a memory ordained for service to the state. Forgotten is the Shell House incident where IFP marchers were fired upon by guards protecting the ANC headquarters. Also forgotten is the civil war that raged here in Natal in the lead up to the elections in 1994. There are many more incidents where the death toll far exceeded Sharpville.
One does not condone what happening at Sharpville. But one cannot help muse that we would not have had a holiday yesterday if the crowd had broken through the outer fence and slaughtered the policemen.
Just a thought.
posted by Malcolm @ 8:20 pm
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