SUNDAY marks the 50 th anniversary of the one single event that forever changed resistance politics in South Africa. Due to the bloodlust of the apartheid government, 69 people died at Sharpeville in the Vaal Triangle after being shot by the defenders of white supremacist rule.

SUNDAY marks the 50 th anniversary of the one single event that forever changed resistance politics in South Africa. Due to the bloodlust of the apartheid government, 69 people died at Sharpeville in the Vaal Triangle after being shot by the defenders of white supremacist rule.

Sharpeville marked the end of making deputations as a primary mode of opposing apartheid and mobilised the country's youth to take up arms against a murderous regime.

So it is helpful to remind the ruling elites that the political outcome we nonchalantly refer to as a "miracle" was achieved as a result of ordinary people putting their lives on the line to fight for the dignity that was their birthright.

Let it never be lost in the collective memory that until there is meaningful access to all the lofty rights promised by our much-lauded Constitution, the struggle will continue.