More than six decades after her father was killed by police during a peaceful anti-apartheid protest in Sharpeville, South Africa, 71-year-old Paulina Mathinye still visits his grave and waits for accountability. On March 21, 1960, police opened fire on Black demonstrators protesting against the country's pass laws, killing at least 69 people in one of the bloodiest days in apartheid history. Now, Mathinye and dozens of other surviving relatives are launching a new legal battle to demand official recognition and financial reparations before time runs out.
Mathinye has joined survivors and victims' families in preparing a potential class action lawsuit. To seek compensation, their legal team must first overturn a legal shield dating back to white-minority rule: the Indemnity Act of 1961, which continues to block civil claims against the state for police violence during that era. In September, lawyers filed an application in the Gauteng High Court challenging the law as unconstitutional. If the court strikes down the statute and certifies the class action, individual survivors and dependants could finally pursue damages.
For Mathinye, who was only five years old when her father died, the loss altered the course of her entire life. Without the family's primary breadwinner, she was unable to finish her education, creating financial hardships that persisted across generations. If the lawsuit succeeds, Mathinye says she will use any compensation to repair her modest home and pay for her four grandchildren's schooling, helping her family recover from decades of neglect.
The Sharpeville initiative is part of a wider effort across South Africa to confront unresolved apartheid-era crimes as survivors and witnesses grow older. Courts have recently reopened inquests into several landmark cases, including the 1977 death of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko in police detention and the 1985 murders of four anti-apartheid activists known as the Cradock Four. Last year, another reopened inquest overturned a decades-old ruling by finding that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Chief Albert Luthuli was beaten to death by police in 1967. Human rights lawyers argue that resolving these long-delayed cases is vital if South Africa is to address the deep injustices of its past.