Sharpeville massacre survivors sue South African government for compensation

Three plaintiffs, including an 86-year-old survivor, have filed a lawsuit against the South African government seeking compensation for the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, one of the bloodiest events under apartheid. If successful, dozens of other victims could file similar claims.

On March 21, 1960, thousands of residents in the town of Sharpeville, about 64 kilometers south of Johannesburg, gathered peacefully outside a police station to protest pass laws, which required Black, Indian, and Colored people to carry documents specifying where they were allowed to be. The march was part of a nationwide series of demonstrations organized by the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), a group that broke away from the African National Congress (ANC).

Abraham Mofokeng, then a 20-year-old factory worker, recalled: "The weather was beautiful, the sun was up. No one could have imagined that the day would end so horribly." According to him, as the crowd was singing, police opened fire without warning. At least 91 people were killed and 238 wounded in what became known as the Sharpeville massacre.

Mofokeng escaped but felt a bullet graze his right foot, tearing his shoe. A woman fell in front of him; he jumped over her and kept running. Only later, when he saw blood running down his leg, did he realize he had been shot in the back, and the bullet remains lodged in his spine to this day. He said: "We continued to suffer. Especially now... I have difficulties and my health is not normal."

The other two plaintiffs are children of victims killed that day. Paulina Mathinye was just five years old when her father was shot dead. She recalled: "Whenever my father came home from work, I was so happy, I ran out and he picked me up." Mathinye did not understand what had happened that day, only asking her mother: "Mom, why are you crying?" Her mother struggled to raise five children on a domestic worker's wage. Mathinye wanted to study teaching but could not afford it, dropping out at 17 to work. Now 71, she said she hopes compensation will partly make up for what she lost when her father died.

Daniel Leader, a partner at UK law firm Leigh Day, which advises a group of South African lawyers led by the non-governmental organization Lawyers for Human Rights, said the plaintiffs hope to receive around 500,000 rand (about 23,000 pounds) each. Mofokeng previously received 30,000 rand as a one-off payment after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) concluded in 2003; the commission had recommended annual payments of about 20,000 rand for six years.

Immediately after the massacre, police claimed protesters had thrown stones at them. Colonel J. Pienaar, the local police commander, told The Guardian the next day: "We do not know how many shots we fired. It started when the crowd surrounded the police station. My car was stoned. If they do that, they must learn their lesson the hard way."

In July 1961, to counter victims' compensation claims, the white minority government passed a law indemnifying the state and anyone acting under its authority for actions "done in good faith for the purpose of preventing, suppressing internal disorder, maintaining or restoring order, public safety, essential services, protecting life or property." The law, retroactive to the day of the massacre, remains in force today. The plaintiffs' legal team argues the act is unconstitutional.

The lawsuit is part of a wave of cases seeking justice for apartheid-era crimes, amid widespread frustration with ANC-led governments for failing to address deep racial inequality and poverty more than three decades after apartheid ended. In January 2025, 25 survivors and relatives of apartheid-era violence victims sued the government for failing to prosecute cases referred by the TRC. In May of the same year, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a judicial inquiry into alleged political interference, which is ongoing. South Africa's Justice Ministry has not responded to requests for comment on this lawsuit.

Vincent Thamae, a PAC member supporting the victims, argued that the problem of Sharpeville did not begin with the 1960 massacre but with the dispossession of Black people's land, their forced removal to townships, and their exclusion from the economy. He said: "When people talk about compensation now, the concept includes all the land they lost, the economy they were excluded from, and the way they have been treated in the new democracy."