Until there is justice and equality in relation to land‚ until the dignity of Black people is restored through access to land‚ “any human rights attained are incomplete”‚ the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) says in a Human Rights Day message.

It said the Sharpeville massacre which ended in the loss of 69 lives on this day in 1960 was a demonstration of the importance of human dignity.

“It highlighted the dehumanisation of Black people and their land dispossession. The lives of 69 people in Sharpeville‚ 3 in Langa and 26 in Uitenhage in 1985 on the same day ended in the hands of police brutality; a reality that still echoes in South Africa 22 years into democracy.

“Resisting and rejecting the Pass Laws was central to the very question of land and that apartheid ensured that they treated natives of this country like foreigners in the land of their birth and ancestors‚” the EFF asserted.

It added: “This day is an assertion that until there is justice and equality in relation to land‚ until the dignity of Black people is restored through access to land‚ any Human Rights attained are incomplete.

“This is because there can be no human right with no land. All human rights are unsustainable without the right to land. They all exist in a time boom because the majority of our people have to claim to this land.”