Formed in 2000, the Anti-Privatisation Forum has been at the center of struggle for reclaiming human rights as entrenched in the constitution of the country.

Sections 24, 26, 27 and 29 of the South African constitution grant all citizens rights to a clean and safe environment, housing, education, water, food, basic services and education. The social and economic rights were supposed to be part of the country's programme of redressing the apartheid-inspired social and economic imbalances. Furthermore, accessing these rights would have ensured the total restoration of dignity for all those who were victims of apartheid, a system described by the United Nations as a crime against humanity.

Access to social and economic rights for South Africa's poor has been a quandary. The unemployment rate, as defined by the government is at 40%. The gap between the highest income earners and the lowest is widening. The poor continue to be affected and infected with HIV/AIDS. In 2006 it was estimated that about 6 million South Africans are infected with HIV/AIDS. Women are the most infected and affected. The government's ARV programme covers only 17% of the infected people.

The housing crisis continues despite government's promises of eradicating shacks. It is reported that since 1994 shacks and shanties have been growing on an average of 140 000 a year. Even the institutions that serve big business concede that government's promises of freeing South Africa from the shackles of shacks by 2014 remains another utopia. Despite the land summit and its promises, land distribution remains one of the tribulations. Education for working class and poor students continues to be in tatters.

The APF and organisations affiliated to the Social Movements Indaba (SMI), a network of social movements, are preparing for a nation-wide protest in support of the demands for housing, water, electricity, HIV treatment and employment. As part of a build up for the national protest and the general building of organisations that are struggling for human rights, the APF has been expanding its activities beyond the Gauteng province.

In December last year, the APF was part of a national meeting which was convened by the SMI, a meeting that declared the 21st of March 2007 as a day of reclaiming human rights.. As part of its mission to build grassroots formations that lead struggles for social and economic rights, the APF is helping in building organisations that defend and advance human rights in Free State and Queenstown and the surrounding rural areas.

The APF fully supports the current mass protest for human rights in Khutsong and Boikhutso. The march on the 21st of March will also be an attempt at strengthening these protests and all other local campaigns that are geared towards strong and combative grassroots formations that stand for real democracy and human rights in South Africa and abroad.

The APF's participation in the World Social Forum in Nairobi was part of an attempt at ensuring that its local struggles for human rights is located within the international struggles for human rights and dignity. Part of the demands for the 21st of March day of action includes a call for an end to wars in Africa as well as freedom for Palestine and Iraq. In addition, the march will also be demanding an entrenchment of democracy and a culture of human rights in Zimbabwe. The marchers will also be calling for an end to the persecution of African immigrants in this country as well as the closure of the Lindelani Concentration Camp, which was noted by the Human Rights Watch and the Human Rights Commission as a place that violates human rights of African immigrants.


*The march of the 21st of March will start in the Library Gardens and end at the Constitution Hill in Braamfontein, where the constitutional court sits. It has to be remembered that in 2003 the APF had planned the same march but the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police stopped the march on counterfeit grounds. As a result of that a number of APF members were either prevented from marching or arrested illegally. This time the APF and other formations from areas like Khutsong, Soweto, the East Rand and the Vaal will be going back to the Constitution Hill to reclaim the right to freedom of expression as well as social and economic rights. The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police has been informed well in advance about the march. The grassroots formations are hoping that the metro police will not undermine the right to protest as it was the case on 21 March 2003. *

see also :  http://fodder.blogs.com/fodder/2005/03/sharpville_1960.html
 http://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa-SharpevilleMassacre-a.htm