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Politicians doing nothing concrete to help us, say survivors of massacre

EVERY year on March 21 politicians descend on Uitenhage, the families of those killed during the Langa Massacre are treated like VIPs and then the politicians drive off in their fancy cars only to be seen again on the same day the next year.

This was the view of Langa Massacre survivor Xolisile Maseti on the 33rd anniversary of the day when 28 people were killed by police. “Every year we meet in March and are treated to food parcels and afterwards they forget we even exist,” he said. “No one listens to our cries. “We’re unemployed, have no proper houses and our children aren’t even at universities, but every year they come and pretend we’re important to them.”

The massacre occurred on March 21 1985, when at least 20 people died as police fired on mourners marching to a funeral. Speaking on behalf of family members of those killed, the Rev Mpumelelo Ntshikivana – who was present at the slaughter – said survivors did not want special treatment, but rather to be heard by government officials.

“All we want is for them to listen to us and not lie and say they’re going to come back, because they never do,” he said.

“We’re not fighting, just speaking the truth. If promises are made, we just want you to honour them.”

Ntshikivana said family members of those killed were living in poverty, dying of hunger and had shoes with holes in them, while jobs were given to cadres who did not deserve them.

The commemoration yesterday included wreath-laying ceremonies at the Bucwa cemetery in KwaNobuhle and the Langa Massacre Memorial Site in Maduna Road before concluding at Uitenhage’s Allanridge Hall.

The event got off to a rocky start, with ANC members calling for Bay mayor Athol Trollip, who was meant to give the opening speech, to go.

ANC provincial executive committee deputy chairman Mlungisi Mvoko apologised to the families for how the event had started, saying it was no way to remember those who had lost their lives for black South Africans to have the rights they enjoyed today.

Mvoko said Human Rights Day had come at a cost.

“There are people who sacrificed their lives, spent years in prison, fighting, others disappeared and others we can’t account for, which is why every year we commemorate them,” he said.

Uitenhage Massacre Foundation chairman Nicholas Malgas said he wanted a precinct to be built around the Langa memorial and for Maduma Road, where the massacre took place, to be recognised as a national road.