{"id":44629,"date":"2026-09-04T17:39:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T15:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=44629"},"modified":"2026-09-04T17:39:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T15:39:26","slug":"sas-sharpeville-survivors-seek-class-action-over-indemnity-law","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-sharpeville-survivors-seek-class-action-over-indemnity-law\/","title":{"rendered":"SA’s Sharpeville survivors seek class action over indemnity law"},"content":{"rendered":"
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    The application challenges the Indemnity Act of 1961, an apartheid-era law that prevents civil or criminal proceedings against the state and state officials for conduct covered during the relevant period.<\/p>\n

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    One survivor and two dependants filed the application on behalf of qualifying victims. The applicants want the court to compel SA President Cyril Ramaphosa, the SA Minister of Justice and the SA Minister of Police to begin steps to repeal the 65-year-old law.<\/p>\n

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    Lawyers for Human Rights Legal Counsellor Melissa Muyambo said the apartheid government enacted the law following the Sharpeville Massacre and subsequent unrest. \u201cIn broad terms, it prevented civil and criminal proceedings from being brought against the state and various state officials in respect of the conduct that was covered by the Act during that relevant period,\u201d Muyambo said.<\/p>\n

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    The law also declared proceedings instituted after the massacre void, creating what Muyambo described as an \u201cextraordinary statutory barrier\u201d to compensation claims.<\/p>\n

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    Preparing the current case required archival research, reconstruction of earlier claims, tracing surviving victims, consultation with affected families and development of a constitutional argument addressing legal prescription.<\/p>\n

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    The applicants seek certification for two groups: surviving victims shot during the massacre and surviving dependants of people killed.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Lawyers for Human Rights has engaged with more than 70 survivors and affected families. Muyambo cautioned that not every person consulted would necessarily qualify for inclusion, while other eligible claimants could remain unidentified.<\/p>\n

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    Muyambo said a class action would prevent elderly survivors and dependants from having to litigate the same historical and legal questions separately.<\/p>\n

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    Individual losses would still have to be proven if the court certified the case.<\/p>\n

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    More than six decades have created evidential challenges. Witnesses have died, memories have become less reliable, and some records may no longer exist.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    However, Muyambo said the case was supported by documentation produced at the time, archival records covering the massacre and subsequent compensation claims, surviving witnesses and historical expert evidence. \u201cA class action doesn\u2019t remove that requirement,\u201d Muyambo said. \u201cWhat it does is avoid requiring every claimant to prove the same historical issue and the legal issues over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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    –ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":44630,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-44629","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Survivors of South Africa\u2019s (SA) 1960 Sharpeville Massacre and dependants have asked the country's Gauteng High Court for permission to pursue a class action against the SA government.","published_date":"","news_description":"Survivors of South Africa\u2019s (SA) 1960 Sharpeville Massacre and dependants have asked the country's Gauteng High Court for permission to pursue a class action against the SA government.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44642,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44629\/revisions\/44642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=44629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}