The day dawned brightly on 21 March 1960, as residents of the South African township of Sharpeville gathered to protest against pass laws, which forced “Black, Indian and Coloured” South Africans to carry documents at all times specifying where they were allowed to be. Abraham Mofokeng joined the march, one of dozens organised nationwide by the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), a breakaway group from the African National Congress. You could not have suspected that the day would go so horribly,” said Mofokeng, who was then a 20-year-old factory worker.
Mofokeng, now 86, was among the thousands gathered peacefully outside the police station in Sharpeville, which is about 40 miles south of Johannesburg in a heavily industrialised region known as the Vaal Triangle. The crowd was singing, he said, when officers opened fire without warning. At least 91 people were killed and 238 injured, in what became known as the Sharpeville massacre.
As Mofokeng fled, a bullet grazed the inside of his right foot, ripping his shoe off. A woman fell to the ground before him; he jumped over her and kept running. Only later, when he noticed blood running down his legs, did he realise he had been shot in the back, where a bullet remains lodged in his spine.
Mofokeng is among three claimants suing the South Africa government, in a case filed on Thursday, for compensation for the massacre. If the case is successful, dozens more could file claims. The case is part of a wave of litigation demanding justice for apartheid-era crimes, amid widespread disillusionment with ANC-led governments that have failed to rectify South Africa’s huge racial inequality and poverty since the end of apartheid over three decades ago.
In January 2025, 25 survivors and relatives of victims of apartheid state violence sued South Africa’s government for failing to prosecute cases referred to it by the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That May, the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, announced a judicial inquiry into potential political interference, which is still ongoing. Spokespeople for South Africa’s justice department did not respond to a request for comment on the Sharpeville compensation case.
In the immediate aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, police claimed that protesters had been throwing rocks at them. My car was struck with a stone. If they do these things they must learn their lesson the hard way.” In July 1961, in response to victims filing compensation claims, the white minority regime passed a law indemnifying the government and anyone acting under its authority for any actions taken “in good faith for the prevention or suppression of internal disorder, the maintenance or restoration of good order, public safety or essential services, or the preservation of life or property”.
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