On 21 March 1960, a crowd of several thousand people gathered at the police station in Sharpeville, a township south of Johannesburg, to protest against the pass laws, which forced Black South Africans to carry documents and restricted their movement. The police opened fire. Sixty-nine people were killed, many of them shot in the back as they ran, and many more were wounded. The massacre became a turning point: it brought the apartheid regime worldwide condemnation, led to the banning of the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress, and pushed the liberation movement towards armed struggle. Today, 21 March is a public holiday, Human Rights Day.
The graves of many of the victims lie in the cemetery in the Phelindaba section of the township, and they have been preserved as a memorial site, part of the group of Nelson Mandela legacy sites that UNESCO listed in 2024 under the heading of human rights, liberation struggle and reconciliation. It is a quiet and solemn place, with rows of simple headstones, and the memorial and exhibition by the old police station nearby tell the story in photographs and testimony. A local guide, ideally someone from Sharpeville, makes an enormous difference to the experience. Visit respectfully, ask before taking photographs, and take your time.
The setting is the industrial Vaal Triangle, a region of steelworks, power stations and sprawling townships on the Vaal river, with Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark the two main towns. Vereeniging has its own history: the treaty that ended the South African War in 1902 was signed here. Riding in this area means highway riding on the Highveld, a high, flat grassland at about 1,500 metres, where the air is thin and clear, the sky is huge and summer afternoons bring spectacular thunderstorms. Winter days are dry and sunny, though nights can be near freezing. Take care with traffic, taxi minibuses and potholes.
Fuel and food are easy in Vereeniging and Vanderbijlpark, only a few kilometres away, and there are shopping centres and restaurants of every kind. Like any large South African urban area, the Vaal requires sensible precautions with security, so keep valuables out of sight, avoid riding at night, and ask your guide about the areas to avoid.