President Ramaphosa to lead Human Rights Day commemoration

President Cyril Ramaphosa will deliver the keynote address at the 25th commemoration of Human Rights Day tomorrow, Thursday, 21 March 2019.

The national event will take place at the George Thabe Sports Ground in Sharpeville, Vereeniging, Gauteng, under the theme “The Year of Indigenous Languages: Promoting and Deepening a Human Rights Culture”. 
 
Human Rights Day has its origins in the events that unfolded at Sharpeville and at Langa in the Western Cape on 21 March 1960, when apartheid security forces cracked down on peaceful marches that opposed pass laws that had been imposed on black South Africans.
 
On that day, an anti-pass march at the Sharpeville police station came to a brutal end with the mass killing of peaceful protesters. Later that day, in   Langa, police baton-charged and fired teargas at the gathered protesters, shooting three and injuring several others.
 
The Sharpeville Massacre, as the event has become known, signalled the start of armed resistance in South Africa and prompted worldwide condemnation of South Africa's apartheid policies. 

Since the advent of democratic governance in South Africa 25 years ago, Human Rights Month has been leveraged as a vehicle to foster social cohesion, nation building, national identity, socio-economic development and to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and all related intolerances.
 
The objective of Human Rights Day 2019 is to amplify efforts to preserve, promote and revitalise endangered languages, to affirm that South Africa is committed to human rights for all, and to emphasise that the Bill of Rights promotes linguistic diversity and encourages respect for all language rights.
 
Media Programme is as follows:

Part 1

Wreath-laying Ceremony
Time: 09h50
Venue: Sharpeville Memorial Site

Part 2

Keynote Address by President Ramaphosa
Time: 11h30                          
Venue: George Thabe Sports Ground

RSVP: Nangamso Gxaba - 072 321 6355

 
Media enquiries: Khusela Diko, Spokesperson to the President on 072 854 5707

Issued by: The Presidency
Pretoria