Survivors of the 1960 Sharpeville massacre and relatives of those killed are suing the South African government in a case that seeks to overturn a 65-year-old law blocking them from receiving compensation.
The case was filed on Thursday. Three people are named as test claimants. If successful, dozens more could follow with their own claims.
The massacre took place on 21 March 1960, when residents of the Sharpeville township, located about 40 miles south of Johannesburg, gathered peacefully outside a local police station to protest against pass laws. Those laws required Black, Indian and Coloured South Africans to carry documents at all times specifying where they were permitted to be.
The protest was one of dozens organised nationwide by the Pan Africanist Congress, a breakaway group from the African National Congress. Police opened fire on the crowd without warning. At least 91 people were killed and 238 injured.
Abraham Mofokeng, now 86, was among those present. He was 20 years old at the time and working as a factory worker.
"The weather was very nice, the sun was out. You could not have suspected that the day would go so horribly," he said.
As Mofokeng fled the gunfire, a bullet grazed the inside of his right foot, ripping off his shoe. He jumped over a woman who had fallen to the ground and kept running. Only later, when he noticed blood running down his legs, did he realise he had also been shot in the back. A bullet remains lodged in his spine to this day.
In the immediate aftermath of the massacre, police claimed protesters had been throwing rocks. "I don't know how many we shot," said Col J Pienaar, the local police commander, in a statement published the following day. "It all started when hordes of natives surrounded the police station. My car was struck with a stone. If they do these things they must learn their lesson the hard way."
In July 1961, following initial compensation claims filed by victims, the white minority government passed a law indemnifying the state and anyone acting under its authority for actions taken "in good faith for the prevention or suppression of internal disorder, the maintenance or restoration of good order, public safety or essential services, or the preservation of life or property." The law was made retroactively effective from the date of the massacre and remains in force today.
The claimants' legal team argues the law is unconstitutional. They are seeking compensation of approximately 500,000 rand, equivalent to around 23,000 pounds, per claimant. The South African legal team is led by Lawyers For Human Rights, an NGO, and is being advised by UK law firm Leigh Day.
Mofokeng previously received a one-off payment of 30,000 rand after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded its work in 2003. The TRC had recommended annual reparations payments of approximately 20,000 rand over six years, but those recommendations were not fully implemented.
"We continued to suffer," Mofokeng said. "Especially now... I am struggling and my health is not up to standard."
The other two test claimants were children when their fathers were killed in the massacre. Paulina Mathinye was five years old when her father, Samson, was shot dead by police.
The case is part of a broader wave of litigation seeking justice for crimes committed during the apartheid era, amid widespread disillusionment with successive ANC-led governments that critics say have failed to address South Africa's deep racial inequality and poverty in the more than three decades since apartheid ended.
In January 2025, 25 survivors and relatives of victims of apartheid-era state violence filed a separate lawsuit against the government for failing to prosecute cases referred to it by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That May, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a judicial inquiry into potential political interference in those prosecutions. The inquiry is still ongoing.
South Africa's justice department did not respond to a request for comment on the Sharpeville compensation case.
