Saturday, 21 March 2026:- The South African Communist Party (SACP) joins th millions of South Africans today in celebrating Human Rights Day. We recognis the legacy of struggles of the masses of the people that has brought about thi particular day in our history.
In 1994, the people of South Africa marked 34 years of the Sharpeville Massacr while preparing for a national democracy. In 2026, we are commemorating 6 years of Sharpeville Massacre while also celebrating 32 years of democracy. Thi signifies remarkable progress for the people of South Africa.
The Sharpeville and the Langa massacres commemorated on this day are no mere memories of the brutality of the apartheid and colonial rule but are testament to the bravery and visionary spirit of the African people whose sacrifice have set the foundation for democratic society we have today.
As the SACP, we recognise that, while Human Rights Day is significant an necessary, its importance and relevance stems not from national ceremonia events but rather from the ongoing demands of the working class whose conditio is characterised by minuscule levels of progress, if any, despite formal politica shifts from apartheid to democracy.
The progress made by the national democratic project in significantly improvin literacy rates, crosscutting access to education, electricity, water and healthcare i currently being counteracted and diminished by a drastic rise of neoliberal polic orientation in state policy. These policies threaten to replace those rights an services with an increased role for monopoly capital, which would result in th impoverishment of the working class and its continued disenfranchisement.
The memory of the Sharpeville and Langa massacres therefore should spur us o at this moment in history to continue the struggle for the total liberation of ou people, the working class in particular, from underdevelopment, poverty, hunger disease, homelessness, unemployment, insecurity and exploitation. This struggl is as relevant today as it was in 1994 when the masses of the people stood in lin for the first time to mark the dawn of democracy and majority rule. To fight agains neoliberalism at this time is the preeminent task of the revolution.
As we celebrate Human Rights Day, we call on all progressives and the people o South Africa as a whole to keep alive the revolutionary spirit that freed them fro colonial oppression as it is a necessary tool at this moment in history for pursuing holistic national development, to fight poverty and create thoroughgoing economi prosperity and equality.
ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY
FOUNDED IN 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA.
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