Despite all the changes in South Africa since March 1960, very little changed in Sharpeville. Most of the township's roads remmain unpaved, and most local businesses suffer from lack of development aid. Some (but very few) Sharpeville residents were able to advance economically, and some social services workers in Gauteng Province believe the town's people remain psychologically damaged from witnessing the massacre. They believe the township never received a proper traditional spiritual cleansing after the massacre, and if such a cleansing is done, the healing process will begin.
Forty-five years later the significance of the Sharpeville massacre is not diminished. Each year from 1961 to 1993 21 March was acknowledged as Sharpeville Day, and the incident was commemorated respectfully - often without official sanction. In 1994 21 March was re-designated National Human Rights Day, and the focus began to shift away from the massacre to the big themes marchers hoped to communicate about basic human liberties. That is rightly where the focus should be and where the Sharpeville victims and their survivors no doubt would want it to be.
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