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Mayor John Lillie Sharpe
Sharpeville was named in honour of him

The Blacks (PAC) in South Africa organised a nation wide protest for 21 March against the passbooks, known by the Africans as 'dompas' and this led to an incident which would have long term ramifications in South Africa. A few months earlier in Durban Africans killed five black and four white policemen. On the 21st March 1960, at 1:15 pm a massacre of Africans took place at Sharpeville not far from Vereeniging. Earlier that morning Major van Zyl was in charge of the police station, there were 18 white and 35 non-white policemen at which stage some of the police started shooting. Constable J van Rensburg had a sten gun and felled six persons in this initial shooting. Frankel gives the following information regarding the arms and ammunition which Constable van Rensburg had, he was from the Vereeniging Police station: He had a .38 pistol and fired 12 rounds, he also had a sten gun which he used.

The Africans heard rumors that one of the big bosses from Pretoria were coming to make a major announcement on the passbook. During the massacre in the afternoon, 20,000 blacks surrounded the police station. There were more than 300 policemen. Lieutenant Colonel Pienaar was in charge. The police had a number of Saracen armoured cars, about six inside the compound. At this historical afternoon, 69 blacks were shot dead and 180 were wounded. Another photo of the event .

As a consequence a state of emergency was declared on 30 March in South Africa and over 11,500 people were detained. On 8 April 1960 the African National Congress (ANC) was proclaimed a legally banned organisation.

See a picture of Mr Mandela burning his passbook in 1960

SOURCES
Philip Frankel, An Ordinary Atrocity: Sharpeville and its Massacre, p 231
M de Witt Dippenaar, The History of South African Police 1913 - 1988, p 277
Sarah Harris, A day that made history: Sharpeville

andre@rensburg.com