The killing of 69 people at Sharpeville on 21 March 1960 while protesting against pass laws was a watershed moment in South Africa's history. It was a watershed moment because it closed off an era of peaceful protest that was influenced significantly 100 years ago when Mahatma Gandhi launched his Satyagraha campaign, and culminated in the Defiance Campaigns that gave impetus to the women's march in 1956 when 20000 women confronted P M Strydom on the issue of Pass Laws.

It was a watershed moment in that Sharpeville ushered in a period of great repression that resulted in Nelson Mandela being jailed and Oliver Tambo being exiled. It was a watershed moment because effectively the apartheid state declared that there was no room for peaceful struggle.
This resulted in the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe - a painful decision- that gave rise to the most restrained, focused and disciplined guerilla army in the world.

On Human Rights Day we will commemorate the sacrifices of many in the march towards a Human Rights culture, and we will celebrate the victory of such a culture. All South Africans should use the opportunity of Human Rights Day to reflect on the sacrifices made for a South Africa that we today take for granted too easily. We must commit that events such as Sharpeville 1960 will never again happen in South Africa and we must have a meeting of minds on the third dimension: ensuring that corrective and reconciliatory efforts go together in redressing the impact of th4e past and uniting our people in the present.

As Premier, I must call on all people of all racial, religious and linguistic backgrounds to attend the Human Rights Day events across the Province. We never have a problem with the numbers who attend. We have a problem with the lack of diversity. We are trying to make the events less heavy politically, and more celebratory so that all must feel comfortable to attend. We cannot simply have a commemoration by victims. Victims or Survivors must have the opportunity to reconcile physically with those who come from a community by and large privileged by apartheid.

Tomorrow is also the start of our celebration of 10 years by our Constitution. This constitution encapsulates the fundamental lessons that we learnt in the struggle for Human Rights, a constitution that is not just modern, but is in fact living as seen by the way its interpretations can answer questions vexing the world (such as the Cartoon row). This constitution has endured for 10 years and has become the benchmark of best practice for many in the World.

This year's Human Right's Day celebration places a particular onus on all leaders of Western Cape society. If we are honest then we will admit that we came out of an election campaign that has been divisive.
Some still view ownership of the City and Province in exclusive terms; we are tempted to exacerbate and exploit fragile identities, we problematise internationally recognized mechanisms to redress the wrongs of the past, not in terms of the process, but in terms of the need, and we are tempted to induce mass amnesia of the past-erasing any memory of apartheid - whereas the Jewish community has shown us the value of memory as the key to not repeating tragedies of the past.

South Africa has much to offer a troubled world and Human Rights Day is our platform to help a world struggling to make the transition from multicultural communities to multi-cultural ones, from religious exclusivity to interfaith co-existence; from xenophobia to a world that recognizes the mobility of people to migrate across borders; and from fear of 'the other' to entering into meaningful relations with those who are different whether women or anyone else.

We have come far as a nation and we must consolidate these gains. Let us celebrate together as a key way of finding each other.

Shado Twala
Spokesperson
Office of the Premier of the Western Cape
Tel: 021 483 3528
Fax: 021 483 3921
Email: stwala@pgwc.gov.za
Website: www.capegateway.gov.za
Address: Provincial Parliament, Mezzanine Level, Office of the Premier, M7, 7 Wale Street, Cape Town, 8001