President Cyril Ramaphosa says the memory of those who died in the Sharpeville Massacre on the 21st of March 1960 will not be forgotten.
The day has its origins in the events that unfolded at Sharpeville and Langa township in the Eastern Cape, where apartheid police attacked protesters during peaceful anti-pass marches.
Sixty-nine people were killed.
Addressing the national Human Rights Day commemorations at the George Thabe sports ground in Sharpeville, Ramaphosa also outlined some of the rights that the constitution affords South Africans.
He further highlighted the need to grow the economy in order for the youth to get jobs.
Ramaphosa says government is working to ensure young people exercise their right to work.
“Our children don’t get jobs. The right to work is an important right that we would like to see fulfilled for our people and we are working day and night to make sure this very important right in the lives of our people is fulfilled and we are going to make progress in this regard as well. So long as one section of the population enjoys some or all of these rights while the others remain unfulfilled, we will never be a society that is united.”
Read Cyril Ramaphosa’s full speech below:
