Uitenhage to mark human rights celebrations
POLITICAL parties and government departments across the province will host a number of events to celebrate Human Rights Day today.
Although some events started earlier in the week, the Eastern Cape provincial government will hold its official Human Rights Day celebrations today in Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) Metro.
Sport, recreation, arts and culture department spokesman Andile Nduna said this year the province chose Uitenhage to host the official provincial celebrations to afford the chance to commemorate the Langa Massacre which occurred on March 21 1985. At least 21 people died and many more were wounded when police opened fire on mourners marching to a funeral along Maduna Road between Uitenhage and Langa township in the Eastern Cape.
This occurred 25 years to the day after the Sharpeville Massacre, in which 69 people were killed.
“The event will involve a wreathlaying ceremony at Langa Township in Uitenhage,” said Nduna.
Human Rights Day, previously known as Sharpeville Day, commemorates those who died during the March 21 massive protest against pass laws in 1960.
Added Nduna: “The same motivation that resulted in the death of 69 people was the same that led to the bloodshed in Uitenhage, and those are our heroes. These events do not only serve as remembrance but as an education to the generations that continue to find their place in our society to know what the country has survived to be where it is.”
The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), which organised the 1960 Sharpeville March will, through its president Luthando Mbinda and the Ntsika Yethu Municipality mayor Xoliswa Vimbayo, unveil a monument in Cofimvaba. The monument is a remembrance of the seven Poqo members from the military wing of the PAC who were shot at KuNtlonze mountain near Cofimvaba on December 12 1960.
The three-metre long granite structure will have inscriptions of the seven Poqo soldiers that were gunned down by the South African police. The seven were believed by the authorities to be carrying a mandate to kill then Transkei president KD Matanzima and all other traditional leaders who supported the apartheid regime.
PAC provincial secretary Sandla Boqwana said the PAC would use the month of March to recognise the contribution made by the PAC in the liberation of the country.
“The monument will be an honour to the families that have lost loved ones for the sake of the country and that was the spirit of the PAC,” said Goqwana.