Half a century ago on Sunday, police officers killed the 69 victims in an area where protesters had burned the passbooks that the white-led apartheid government required them to carry at all times.

But survivors of the massacre say they are tired of telling their stories, and say they are now wondering when the change they thought they were fighting for 50 years ago will come to Sharpeville.

Residents in recent weeks have set fire to tyres in the streets to protest against the lack of basic city services such as electricity and running water.

Local residents say the 50th anniversary of the massacre will be calm, despite concerns that commemoration activities could be interrupted with demonstrations.

"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 the protesters, shooting demonstrators including women and children as they ran away.

The massacre, a turning point in the anti-apartheid struggle, drew world condemnation of the white-led government's ruthless treatment of South Africa's disenfranchised black majority and led the apartheid government to outlaw the African National Congress party. The ANC has governed South Africa since the country's first all-race elections in 1994.

But 16 years after the end of apartheid, many black South Africans feel that they have not benefited from the economic growth that has made many government and ANC officials rich.

President Jacob Zuma, a popular figure among the poor, 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.

In Sharpeville, the cemetery today is filled with rows of mismatched tombstones covered with unkempt grass and faded artificial flowers. A line of neat concrete slabs with black stone headstones marks the resting place of the massacre's victims. The old police station where protesters gathered 50 years ago has become a community centre. Survivors of the massacre meet there, with other victims of apartheid, to share their stories and try to help each other heal.