Sharpeville massacre deaths weren’t in vain: Lesufi

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Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi says the victims of the Sharpeville massacre did not die in vain. He was speaking to SABC News on the sidelines of the commemoration of Human Rights Day in Sharpeville outside Johannesburg.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and Lesufi laid wreaths at the Sharpeville Memorial Site in honour of the 69 people who apartheid police shot and killed on this day 64 years ago. They were protesting against the apartheid pass laws.

Lesufi says South Africans are enjoying the country’s democracy because of the sacrifices of those who died in the massacre.

“If you do take into consideration something that is very key – which is the human rights of these people, the right to access medical facilities, the right to choose where you want to live, the right to choose where you want to stay compared to those days of Group Areas Act and you compared with those days where people could not go to school that is nearby here. When you come here and see the children of this area go to any school of their choice and going to any health facility of their choice and do whatever they want to do without any restriction of being asked of any document whether they stay here or not. You can see that there is major progress that we have made but obviously we can defeat all this at once.”

The video below is the full interview with Panyaza Lesufi: