On 21 March 1960, a crowd of several thousand people gathered outside the police station in Sharpeville, a township near Vereeniging in the south of Gauteng, to protest against the pass laws, which required black South Africans to carry documents restricting where they could live and work. The police opened fire, killing sixty nine people and wounding many more, most of them shot in the back as they fled. The massacre shocked the world and marked a turning point in the struggle against apartheid, leading to the banning of the liberation movements and the start of armed resistance. The date is now commemorated in South Africa as Human Rights Day, and internationally as the day for the elimination of racial discrimination.
The memorial garden and the exhibition centre stand near the site of the shooting, with a wall bearing the names of those who died and a museum that tells the story of the massacre and its aftermath. It was in Sharpeville, in December 1996, that President Nelson Mandela signed the new constitution of South Africa into law, a powerful symbol of the change the country had undergone. The memorial is part of a group of sites associated with the human rights struggle that was added to the World Heritage list in 2024.
The area around Sharpeville is part of the Vaal Triangle, an industrial region between Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark and Sasolburg, with steel works, power stations and refineries. The Vaal River, which runs through the area, is a popular spot for boating and fishing, and there are restaurants and resorts along its banks. Riding here is mostly on busy urban and suburban roads, with heavy traffic, trucks and minibus taxis that stop without warning.
Vanderbijlpark and Vereeniging have fuel, shops and restaurants, and Johannesburg is about an hour to the north. To the north west, the Cradle of Humankind, with the fossil caves of Sterkfontein and Maropeng, offers a fascinating day trip, with quieter roads through the grasslands. As in much of South Africa, it is advisable to ride during daylight, keep valuables out of sight, and seek local advice about safe routes. The weather on the Highveld is generally sunny, with summer thunderstorms in the afternoons and cold, dry winters.