1960_in_South

1960 in South Africa

Events

21 March - Sharpeville massacre, Police shoot and kill an estimated 69 people who were part of a demonstration against pass laws, in which all black South Africans needed a passbook to be able to travel about their own land
22 March - Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd tells Parliament that the Anti-Pass Resistance in Sharpeville, Gauteng was not targeted against the government
23 March - Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, leader of the Pan Africanist Congress, who led the Sharpeville demonstration, Albert Lutuli for publicly burning his pass and 11 others are arrested for incitement of riots
24 March - All public meetings more than 12 people are banned, later reduced to meetings greater than 3 people
30 March - The government declared a State of Emergency

8 April - The government bans the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress with the coming into effect of the Unlawful Organisations Act.
9 April - David Pratt shoots and injures Hendrik Verwoerd, the Prime Minister of South Africa, as he opened the Rand Easter Show at Milner Park, Johannesburg
19 April - The South-West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) is founded in Windhoek, South West Africa, to oppose South African rule

4 May - Robert Sobukwe, President of the Pan Africanist Congress, is sentenced to 3 years imprisonment for incitement of Africans to urge the repeal of pass laws

5 October - whites vote in a referendum, to sever South Africa's last links with the British monarchy and become a republic