This year marks the 47th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre. The march is still on, but in different directions.

This year marks the 47th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre. The march is still on, but in different directions.

Many black people, with a history of bad schooling, a bad health system, no tarred roads and inadequate housing, still hope for a better life. Crime, poverty and squalor, and HIV and Aids have a black face.

Notwithstanding many years of freedom and democracy, black people still toil in mining and agriculture - not as owners but perpetual menial labourers - who work under the permanent threat of being retrenched or expelled.

We have black politicians as mayors, councillors and parliamentarians, yet it is still us who take to the streets to protest about service delivery.

We did not expect the apartheid government to deliver anything to us because it was not our government.

There are a lot of things still retarding our progress.

Few of us are qualified lawyers, doctors, engineers and chartered accountants. Few of us lead companies, except those owned by the government, where leadership is party politically measured.

When black people marched for freedom, they did not march against carrying IDs only. They marched for inclusion in the human race. Even under the current government, the same march is still on.

Black people continuously find themselves marked for faults and failure. Let's get working.

Bhele Langa, Mdantsane