Beginnings: Sharpeville and the Boycott Debates

Abstract

In a small town called Vereeniging, in Transvaal (now Gauteng), not far from Johannesburg, the treaty that ended the Boer War was signed in 1902. Fifty-eight years later, on the 21 March 1960, in a township on the outskirts of Vereeniging called Sharpeville, a demonstration against the pass laws was held in the morning. The demonstration was organized by the PAC. After the ANC had declared the 31 March as a nation-wide protest day against the pass laws, which restricted the movements of the black population of South Africa, the PAC answered by declaring the 21 of the same month as a day of mass action against the pass laws. PAC activists paid the area around Vereeniging special attention.¹