South Africans mark massacre anniversary

In 1960, police officers killed 69 black South Africans in Sharpeville, where people had gathered to protest at the pass books that the apartheid government required them to carry at all times.

South Africa's Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe laid flowers at the memorial Garden of Remembrance today, and spent time speaking with survivors and family members of massacre victims.

"We say never, never and never again will a government arrogate itself powers of torture, arbitrary imprisonment of opponents and the killing of demonstrators," Motlanthe told a crowd of 5,000 who had gathered at a stadium.

"In the same breath, we state that our democratic government undertakes to never ignore the plight of the poor, those without shelter, those without means to an education and those suffering from abuse and neglect."

But in recent weeks Sharpville residents have set fire to tyres in the streets to protest the lack of basic services such as electricity and running water.

"Our lives started changing with Nelson Mandela's release, but people are still financially struggling and finance is still in white people's hands," said Abram Mofokeng, who was just 21 when officers opened fire on protesters in 1960, shooting women and children as they ran away. Mofokeng was shot in the back as he ran away.

The massacre drew world condemnation of the ruthless treatment of South Africa's black majority. The country's first elections for all races were not held until 1994.

President Jacob Zuma has promised to speed up delivery of houses, clinics, schools, running water and electricity as well as create jobs. But he also has acknowledged the difficulties of doing so amid the global recession.