South Africa Confronts Unfinished Business of the Apartheid Era: NPR

A mass funeral is held in Sharpeville, South Africa, on March 30, 1960, for 69 people killed by police during an anti-apartheid demonstration. More than six decades later, the victims’ families are renewing their fight for justice.

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SHARPEVILLE, South Africa – Paulina Mathinye points anxiously at the rows of trash-strewn, weed-filled graves in the cemetery where her father is buried.

“Look where they sleep,” she said of the dozens of black protesters buried here, all of whom were killed when police opened fire on March 21, 1960, in what became one of the bloodiest days in apartheid history.

“Why are they dirty? It’s a shame,” said the 71-year-old grandmother, wearing a floral dress and an elegant sun hat.

The cemetery, like many other things in this visibly poor township, located about an hour’s drive from Johannesburg, is abandoned. But Mathinye notes that for at least one day a year, when South Africa’s political elite descend to commemorate the massacre, the cemetery is spotless. This anniversary is a public holiday known as Human Rights Day.

“I’m still angry. My anger comes out because it was the day my father was shot,” says Mathinye, who was only five years old at the time.

She says her father’s role in what became a turning point in the fight against apartheid has not been adequately recognized by the current democratic government.

And she says she wants justice – even if it’s delayed.

Paulina Mathinye stands near her father’s grave at a cemetery in Sharpeville, South Africa, September 23, 2026.

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That’s why she signed up to participate in a potential class-action lawsuit 66 years later, alongside Sharpeville survivors and the families of Sharpeville victims.

At least 69 people were shot dead by police that day. They were protesting the country’s pass laws, which restricted the movement of black people and where they could live and work.

Although it is unclear whether the perpetrators are still alive, those involved in the case hope it can lead to reparations.

But first, the group’s lawyers must challenge an apartheid-era law that continues to block their efforts to seek redress. The law remains in force decades after the end of apartheid and the coming to power of a black majority government.

In September, they filed an application in the Gauteng High Court challenging the continuation of the Compensation Act 61 of 1961. If the court finds the law unconstitutional and also certifies a class action for survivors and dependents of those killed, then individual damages claims could follow.