NATIONAL days like March 21 remind us that the freedom we enjoy today would not have been possible without the brave hearts who not only came before us but also dared to dream and fight for its dawn to end the madness of apartheid in our land.
Unfazed by the brute force of the state, the brave hearts fired by the quest for freedom took a stand to express a yearning for a future consistent with true humanity.
Human degradation being the cornerstone on which the apartheid political system was built for its survival, killing became logical against anti-pass protesters who were tampering with its very foundations on March 21 1960.
The killings were consistent with the initial cruelty that neither saw nor conferred common humanity on those whom the system deemed fit to oppress as "bantus".
Tragically, 69 people were killed and 180 to 300 protesters reported injured in what history came to record as the Sharpeville Massacre.
The massacre also resulted in the banning of the ANC and the PAC.
The events prompted international condemnation of the system.
Analysts, historians and modern-day commentators who find objectivity unpatriotic will be inclined to strait jacket the factors leading to March 21 to tune into playing to the galleries of party zealots fixated with sanitising history to suit self-interested positions.
To make the lies they tell pass as truth for the day, blind followers are prone to confuse self-deluding wishes as enlightening facts. Were the founding president of the PAC, Mangaliso Sobukwe, alive today, I doubt he would claim the day for himself as footballers do after scoring.
It was not by mistake that Steve Biko counted Sobukwe, Nelson Mandela and Govan Mbeki, among others, when asked about who he considered to be the representatives of the people as a defence witness during the Saso/BPC treason trial in May 1976.
The government has already done so by recognising March 21 as Human Rights Day.
Wherever the government chooses to mark the day there should be no suggestion of denial of the historic significance that saw unarmed protesters being mowed down as a deterrent to people's countrywide response to Sobukwe's stance against a mad state.
A history that neglects his distinct role in the anti-pass call of March 21 1960 will tomorrow forget that Cosatu's Zwelinzima Vavi was the voice of the massive resistance to labour brokers and e-tolling of Gauteng roads on March 7 2012.
The parallel is too obvious to be missed.
President Jacob Zuma's statesmanship would be enhanced by according Sobukwe his place in history, in the same way as he did with Biko in this year's state of the nation address.
Who can forget the IFP's Mangosuthu Buthelezi's statesmanship when reacting to Biko's death: "Only a country as mad as South Africa can waste such a talent".
March 21 should help us know and claim our rights without allowing our rationality to give in to the madness of a country that killed Biko.
Sobukwe must be accorded rightful place in our history
NATIONAL days like March 21 remind us that the freedom we enjoy today would not have been possible without the brave hearts who not only came before us but also dared to dream and fight for its dawn to end the madness of apartheid in our land.
Unfazed by the brute force of the state, the brave hearts fired by the quest for freedom took a stand to express a yearning for a future consistent with true humanity.
Human degradation being the cornerstone on which the apartheid political system was built for its survival, killing became logical against anti-pass protesters who were tampering with its very foundations on March 21 1960.
The killings were consistent with the initial cruelty that neither saw nor conferred common humanity on those whom the system deemed fit to oppress as "bantus".
Tragically, 69 people were killed and 180 to 300 protesters reported injured in what history came to record as the Sharpeville Massacre.
The massacre also resulted in the banning of the ANC and the PAC.
The events prompted international condemnation of the system.
Analysts, historians and modern-day commentators who find objectivity unpatriotic will be inclined to strait jacket the factors leading to March 21 to tune into playing to the galleries of party zealots fixated with sanitising history to suit self-interested positions.
To make the lies they tell pass as truth for the day, blind followers are prone to confuse self-deluding wishes as enlightening facts. Were the founding president of the PAC, Mangaliso Sobukwe, alive today, I doubt he would claim the day for himself as footballers do after scoring.
It was not by mistake that Steve Biko counted Sobukwe, Nelson Mandela and Govan Mbeki, among others, when asked about who he considered to be the representatives of the people as a defence witness during the Saso/BPC treason trial in May 1976.
The government has already done so by recognising March 21 as Human Rights Day.
Wherever the government chooses to mark the day there should be no suggestion of denial of the historic significance that saw unarmed protesters being mowed down as a deterrent to people's countrywide response to Sobukwe's stance against a mad state.
A history that neglects his distinct role in the anti-pass call of March 21 1960 will tomorrow forget that Cosatu's Zwelinzima Vavi was the voice of the massive resistance to labour brokers and e-tolling of Gauteng roads on March 7 2012.
The parallel is too obvious to be missed.
President Jacob Zuma's statesmanship would be enhanced by according Sobukwe his place in history, in the same way as he did with Biko in this year's state of the nation address.
Who can forget the IFP's Mangosuthu Buthelezi's statesmanship when reacting to Biko's death: "Only a country as mad as South Africa can waste such a talent".
March 21 should help us know and claim our rights without allowing our rationality to give in to the madness of a country that killed Biko.
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