On 21 March 1960 the PAC led a peaceful anti-pass campaign by walking to the police station en masse without passes to hand themselves over. This resulted in skirmishes with the police where they used live ammunition on the crowd, killing 69 people whose bullet wounds were mostly in their backs. 

As I write this article I am listening to the imploring chords of John Mayer as he belts out “we keep on waitin’, waitin’ on the world to change…”

The song makes me ask the question of what it really means to commemorate the 69 people who sacrificed their lives in order for us to live in a South Africa that sees these rights as indivisible and guaranteed to all? How have we taken on the baton of human rights and furthered it?

How many of us still remember that Nelson Mandela chose to sign South Africa’s Constitution into law on 10 December 1996, International Human Rights Day, at Sharpeville as a symbolic acknowledgement of the blood shed for our rights?

Yet Sharpeville today is an eyesore of poverty, unemployment and service delivery shambles. Driving through the streets you are met by mounting refuse on the sides of the road and gaping potholes that residents have become so used to that they expertly avert them as they go about their business.

What does this say of our commitment to ensuring the dignity of people and ensuring equal access to the rights Nelson Mandela signed into law 24 years ago? 

We only ever seem to remember the township once a year and for seemingly ceremonial reasons as our actions and efforts during the year show no effort to attend to its ills. 

This brings into sharp focus the ceremonial nature of our engagement as South Africans. We can celebrate and mark significant days but we are found remiss when it comes to living and furthering the causes that we celebrate on those days.

This 60-year milestone requires us to not only be reflective but to be forward-looking as we lead the charge for a truly human rights-based country. How do we honour the memory of the Sharpeville massacre when so many of our people are still at odds with our Constitution and its aspirations? 

When we are able to look beyond ourselves, our needs, our survival and ask what we can do for our community surely that translates into a recognition of our mutual humanity?

Many of the country’s challenges, such as the hollowing of state institutions, corruption, service delivery, flouting of laws, gender-based violence, education and access to healthcare are precisely because our human rights compass is wavering.

And yet a rural civil society organisation in the far reaches of the Eastern Cape is leading the charge in embodying the spirit of human rights. 

The Amadiba Crisis Committee have not only tenaciously fought against the exploitation of their community’s right to determine what happens on their land, but have also been unequivocal in ensuring their constitutionally guaranteed rights as citizens are not trampled by big business. 

On 21 March they are leading an initiative to go beyond themselves and be of service to their remote community during this time of need as a result of the coronavirus. 

They are embarking on a door-to-door campaign of informing people about the coronavirus and how to take care of themselves during this time, while practising the requisite social distancing and precautions.

A most inspiring and proactive measure of active citizenry. 

Surely this is the embodiment of the spirit of upholding each other’s dignity and human rights by reaching outside of ourselves?

At a time where South Africa needs strong leadership we should surely be looking to emulate the spirit of the Amadiba and the people of Sharpeville all those years ago. 

What happened in Sharpeville 60 years ago was part of a collective mobilisation of community and civic obligation to bring about our democratic country. People were galvanised into action in order to agitate for the change they wanted by harnessing their civilian power and not looking to the state for emancipation.

Perhaps in this chapter of our history as we battle the coronavirus outbreak we can be unified in ensuring a human rights-based response. This response requires compassion for each other by adhering to the guidelines promulgated to curb the spread of the virus. We need to ensure that we share information with people who might not have access as well as not wittingly place the lives of others at stake. 

We need to be aware of the access to resources and security our various positions of privilege afford us versus those who are not as privileged but most at risk.

As a generation, we need to be aware of the lessons we are teaching our children and as a result the legacy we will leave behind. Will it be lessons of privilege trumps humanity or that privilege places a greater responsibility for compassion. This moment should be one that will record how we responded in the face of a global crisis that united us all in our mortality but most of all humanity. 

After all it was author Amit Ray who said: “In every crisis, doubt or confusion, take the higher path – the path of compassion, courage, understanding and love.” MC