Protest at Pass Law
European women injured, buildings ablaze
Fifty-six Africans, including women and children, were killed and 162 injured when South African police opened fire on a crowd demonstrating against the pass laws yesterday at Sharpeville, a township of Vereeniging.
The Pan-Africanist Congress, an extremist break-away of the African National Congress, had called on their 31,000 members in the Union to come out without their passes (identity cards which all Africans are required by law to carry) and surrender themselves for arrest at the nearest police station.
At Sharpeville the crowd grew to 20,000 strong and surrounded the police station, shouting. One African was shot dead and four injured after the police had been stoned (according to Reuter). The Africans retaliated and then the police opened fire.
"I don't know how many we shot," said Colonel J. Pienaar, the local area police commander at Sharpeville. "It all started when hordes of natives surrounded the police station. My car was struck with a stone. If they do these things they must learn their lesson the hard way." An official at Vereeniging hospital put the casualties at 7 p.m. to-night at 56 dead and 162 injured. Forty-four people seriously injured are in this hospital and the other 118 injured have been transferred to Baragwanath hospital, near Johannesburg.
Meanwhile there were reports from newspapermen in Langa, an African township near Capetown, that an unknown number of Africans were shot dead and many wounded when a riot broke out there to-night.
Seven buildings, including two schools, were said to have been destroyed by fire in the riot. The newspapermen were at Langa police station, where they had been besieged by a crowd of Africans for more than two hours. They reported that Army units arrived just before 7 p.m. to help the police.
Mr Owen Hodges, a commercial traveller who drove through the Vereeniging area to-day, said African men egged on by women pelted cars with stones and fruit. Sharpeville police station was "literally besieged" by thousands of African men and women and police could only make contact with it by forcing their way through with Saracen armoured cars. Aircraft which dived over the area in an attempt to disperse the crowd only seemed to anger the Africans.
Like ninepins
The first African was shot dead and four Africans and several policemen were injured after the police had been stoned. The Africans retaliated, causing casualties among the police. The police then opened fire with sub-machine guns, Sten guns, and rifles, and eye-witnesses said that the front ranks of the crowd fell like ninepins. The crowd then retreated, leaving their dead and wounded in the street.
Mangled bodies of men, women and children lay sprawled on the roadway of the square. One policeman described the scene as "like a world war battlefield". A Johannesburg news photographer, whose own car was riddled with bullets, said, "I took pictures of more bloodshed than I have ever before seen in South Africa."
The South African Press Association said one police officer instructed an African to collect pieces of a mangled body in a hat with a shovel and then spread sand over pools of blood in Sharpeville Road. A couple of African Salvation Army workers in uniform tried to help some of the victims.
The police seemed to be rather shocked themselves at the scene. Traffic policemen and motor cyclist police patrols led ambulances and fire appliances and police trucks to and from the African hospital at Vereeniging and the police station at Sharpeville. Roads outside the police station were literally covered in blood.
Police officers went to the scene, including Brigadier Els, the Witwatersrand assistant commissioner of police. There were at least six Saracen armoured vehicles ranged around Sharpeville police station and it was understood more were being called in for to-night.
Wailing of women
An African minister of religion took a piece of iron and scraped sand over the pools of blood. The scene of shooting after it was all over, was relatively quiet, But in the background the wailing and screaming of the women could be heard.
Hospital wards were crammed with casualties - at least twelve corpses were in the mortuary and there was a shuttle service of ambulances. Some of the wounded were lying covered with blankets on verandahs of buildings near the casualty wards. Authorities of the Vereeniging hospital's non-European section issued an urgent S.O.S. to-night for blood for the wounded. A large department store at Vanderbijlpark sent all women employees home to fetch their children and bring them back to the safety of the store. The town's magistrate, Mr J.J. Greyling, locked himself and his staff up in the court buildings.
A firearms dealer at Vanderbijlpark, five miles west of Vereeniging, said: "People are buying up all our firearms as quickly as they can."
At Bophelong, where two Africans and several police were injured, cars were stoned and police used tear gas and batons to disperse the crowd. Telephone lines were cut.
The Pan-Africanist Congress President, Mr Robert Sobukwe, and the general secretary, Mr Potlako Leballo, who had expected 500 "resisters" led a party of 60 to the Orlando police station, near Johannesburg, this morning. Mr Sobukwe, Mr Leballo, and six others were held for questioning by the special (security) branch.
At Alexandra township, ten miles north of Johannesburg, where an effective bus boycott was conducted four years ago, the whole area was reported quiet. The Alexandra branch of the Pan-Africanist Congress decided not to take part in the campaign because the local branch chairman was expelled from the movement.
"Flop" in Natal
The East Rand - Springs, Brakpan, and Nigel - were reported normal and the white and non-white police there were sent to the Vereeniging area. From Durban, in Natal, it was reported that the anti-pass campaign had "flopped badly." Only twelve Africans in Durban surrendered themselves to police and reports from other police stations in the province indicated that no others had answered the campaign call.
In Capetown, thousands of Africans in the main townships reported at police stations without passes. They queued up to have their names taken and will appear in court under the pass laws later this week.
In Port Elizabeth no Africans presented themselves for arrest. In Pretoria there were only five. They were not arrested but will appear in court at a later date.
