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PAC leader Mzwanele Nyhontso
Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) leader and Land minister Mzwanele Nyhontso says he decided to commemorate Human Rights Day in Langa township, Cape Town, on Saturday, to keep the legacy of this settlement alive.
He says this is also to remind South Africans of the role Langa played during the apartheid era.
Langa was the sight of protests in the 1960s and Nyhontso says the PAC doesn’t want the history of the community to fade away.
‘So I’ve decided to come here and make sure that we remind our people that on that fateful day in 1960, 21 people were killed here in Langa, and that changed the course of the struggle, in Azania,” he says.
VIDEO | Human Rights Day 2026 | PAC observes 66th anniversary of the Langa massarce
The commemoration kicked off with a prayer near Robert Sobukwe Square. Provincial secretary Siya Ndamase says PAC officials are working hard to grow party structures, in the Western Cape.
“The PAC is now busy trying to reignite its connection with the people. Since 1994, there has been a lull and political confusion among the community. But now that the PAC has returned to the forefront, we have programs we are running around the community, like this rally in Langa,” says Ndamase.
PAC commemorates 66th anniversary of Langa Massacre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQ-aQnSphFI
PAC in Gauteng
Meanwhile, in Gauteng, scores of members from the PAC, have gathered at the Phelindaba Cemetery in Sharpville, south of Johannesburg, to commemorate the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre. The commemoration event kicked off this morning with wreaths being laid at the graves of the Sharpeville martyrs.
The PAC members are soon expected to embark on a march along Seeiso Street to the Sharpeville Memorial Site, retracing the footsteps of the historic 1960 anti-pass campaign.
The main commemorative event is expected to take place just before noon at Dlomo Dam.
“This day is very important because it was as a result of this day that we had what we call Robben Island and it was also as a result of this day that we had all political liberation movements that were banned. It was because of this day that many of our leaders were hanged at Kgosi Mampuru. So it was as a result of this day that the United Nations had to sit and declare apartheid a crime against humanity. So for us we will always commemorate this day in a solemn and dignified way,” says the PAC’s Secretary General, Apa Pooe.
VIDEO | Human Rights Day | PAC commemorates Sharpville massacre with a wreath laying ceremony
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVUlqxuLWdM
