Sharpeville massacre death toll disputed

SHARPEVILLE residents still maintain that the death toll in the March 21, 1960, massacre is much higher than the 69 people in official records.

- LOYISO SIDIMBA

George Molibedi was only 12 when apartheid security forces fired on a crowd of people protesting against unjust laws forcing Africans to carry a dompas.

Now in his 70s, Molibedi looks at his grandfather Zackia Lefakane's grave lined among some of the victims laid to rest in a line of modest tombstones at the township's Pelindaba Cemetery.

Molibedi looks at the grave of Lefakane, whom he described as his mother's nephew, and notes his age at the time of his death.

"He died very young at 50," he said.

As if to deflect the attention his grand-father is getting, Molibedi quickly lifts his head to other graves across to other graves he insists were also shot on March 21 but died later. One such grave, with a handwritten headstone, is of an elderly man born in November 1878 and died in October 1960, a few weeks shy of his 82nd birthday. According to Molibedi, Stephen Poonyane, whom he described as an old man, was the first victim of the shooting but is not recorded on the official list.