National Women’s Day is an annual public holiday in South Africa that commemorates an event that took place on 9 August 1956. It started with a march and ended with a song!

The march

On 9 August 1956 some 20 000 women took to the streets of Pretoria and marched to the Union Buildings. They were led by Sophia Williams-de Bruyn, Lilian Ngoyi, Rahima Moosa, Helen Joseph, and others such as Frances Baard; all formidable anti-apartheid activists.

The petition

The women were petitioning against certain amendments to the so-called “pass laws” that required people of African descent to carry special identification documents that curtailed their freedom of movement. A petition with more than 100 000 signatures was left at the then Prime Minister, J.G. Strydom’s, office door.

The song

After delivering their petition the group of determined and defiant women went outside and maintained silence for 30 minutes before breaking into song! The song, composed in honour of the occasion, pointed out in no uncertain terms that “now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock”. In 2006, the 50th anniversary of the march, women again took to the streets to re-enact and commemorate this historic event. As an added bonus quite a few of the veteran 1956 marchers were able to join the procession.

You touch a woman, you strike a rock

National Women’s Day points out, once again, how ordinary women of every race, background and cultural group can change history when standing together for what is right. It is a known fact that South African women are a tough lot and that when the going gets really tough the women usually stand up and take a stand. This was the case with the 1956 marchers against the apartheid laws but it was also the motto of the Boer women who proclaimed to their men folk that they would rather march across the mountains without shoes than return to British rule.

Working together for a better future

Today, the women of South Africa are once again working side by side to make this beautiful country a better place for their children. You find them in every sphere of life: from “gogos” of all colours and creeds helping to cart around and bring up their grandchildren, to businesswomen and entrepreneurs such as Wendy Luhabe who was named “One of 50 Leading Entrepreneurs of the World” and Thana Pienaar, principal of Prestige College, a private school for black children in the Hammanskraal area north of Pretoria. This school has seen its pupils win a nationwide technology Olympiad and achieve amazing educational results.

In the medical and scientific field South African women make us proud. For example, Professor Anna-Lise Williamson, her sister and her mostly female team are working on a possible Aids vaccine and Dr Valerie Mizrahi and her associates are doing research on how to prevent drug-resistant TB.

Scratch the surface of any social welfare or social upliftment initiative and you will find dedicated women busy steering the drive, women such as Nomakula Matiwane-Mrubata and Thozama “Tutu” Greheme who are busy seeing to the needs of the aged. Rolene Miller is another who runs an organisation to provide healing, rehabilitation and skills development for abused women.

Ordinary South African women such as Maria Solomon of Mitchell’s Plain and many others are caring for abused and abandoned children in their own homes. This beside the many women who are silently, without expecting praise, going about their business, working, looking after their families and extended families and “hanging in there” hoping for a better future for all South Africans.

Although we cannot name all, we salute all the wonderful women of South Africa who are united in their efforts to bring relief to those who are sick and suffering, to help the aged, the poor and the abandoned and to share their skills with other women.

 

Sources
 Dhliwayo, T. SA scientist in TB breakthrough. Retrieved from: http://www.southafrica.info/women/tbresearch.htm National Women’s Day – 9 August. Retrieved from: http://www.southafrica.com/blog/national-womens-day-9-august
SA Aids vaccine “promising”. 2003. Retrieved from: http://www.southafrica.info/women/aidsvaccine.htm
South Africa: National Women’s Day. 2011. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Women’s_Day
Your “ordinary” heroines. Retrieved from: http://www.southafrica.info/women/yourheroes.htm