03 August 2006

Ladies and gentlemen,

South African Women’s Day 9 August 2006 will be marked in a number of public events in various centres throughout the country. The National Event will take place in Pretoria. The day will commences with the re-enactment of the 1956 march from the Pretoria CBD to the Union Buildings. Marchers are expected to assemble in Strijdom Square, near the State Theatre, from 07.00 hours. At 08.40hours the march will set off, up Church Street to the Union Buildings. A deputation of twenty marchers will be received by the Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and the veterans of the 1956 Anti-Pass March at the Union Buildings amphitheatre where they will deliver a symbolic memorandum to the Deputy President.

Marchers and all other participants in the commemoration will gather on the lawns of the Union Buildings. President Thabo Mbeki will address the nation at around 11.20 hours at whose conclusion the President will unveil of an exhibition depicting the struggles of the women of South Africa. The centrepiece of this exhibition is a sculpture by Mrs Noriah Mabasa, commissioned for the occasion by the Department of Arts and Culture.

The cultural programme “Kwela Democracy” will feature seven South African Divas ranging from the mid -1950s till the present. The full details regarding accreditation for the march, the lawns at Union buildings, the official programme, cultural programme, street closures, etc are in your media packs.

We hope to see all of you there!

09 August commemorates that day in 1956 when thousands of women from all corners of South Africa gathered in Pretoria and marched on the Union Buildings to protest the imposition of passes on African women. The Women’s march was part of an unbroken campaign to resist the imposition of the pass laws on Women, dating back to the earliest demonstrations in 1913. The 9th of August 2006 marks the 50th Anniversary of the 1956 Women’s Anti-pass March on the Union Buildings.

The 1950s was a decade marked by the steady entrenchment of apartheid in incremental steps. Seven new oppressive laws, passed between 1948 and 1951, by the National Party government set the scene for the erosion of the few rights South Africans enjoyed after the Second World War.

The Pass Laws were a complex system of economic coercion and social control that under-girded the subject political status of the indigenous people under colonialism and apartheid. They determined where an African could live; where an African could go; where an African could work; where an African play; where an African could travel; when an African could travel. Virtually every facet of an Africans life could be controlled and monitored by means of a personal dossier that every African was required to carry. The law required that every African produce this dossier to the police and a number of municipal officials for inspection on demand. An infraction of any of these laws multitudinous provisions could result in imprisonment.

These laws, with a long history dating back to the 1800’s in the Cape Colony, had at different times been applied to the Khoikhoi, to slaves, to Indians and to Chinese. But by the 1950s were applied exclusively to Africans, marking them off as a subject and conquered people. It was the badge of the Africans inferior political and social status!

Women of all races had migrated to the urban areas during the first half of the twentieth century. The pace of urban migration among Black women, African, Coloured and Indian, soared during the Second World War, spurred by the new economic opportunties and by the collapse of rural economies in the “reserves”. As more and more African women entered the modern labour market, taking up jobs in domestic service, the food processing and garment industries, the apartheid regime sought to confine them to low-paying, unskilled jobs through the Pass Laws.

At the bottom of the social, economic and political hierarchy, the Pass Laws were designed to render African women even more vulnerable. The Pass Laws gave state official quite extra-ordinary power over Africans, including even the ability to earn a living by the sweat of your brow!

Hence the unprecedented resistance with which Women had met them, beginning in 1913!

The movement to resist the passes covered rural, urban and peri-urban areas in almost the entire country. In certain instances, as in Natal and the North-west during 1956 and ’57, escalated into armed clashes with police. United action among Women of all races in the urban areas was echoed by militant action among rural women.

August 9th, South African Women’s Day, celebrates not only the marchers of 1956, but the ongoing struggle of the Women of this country for freedom, democracy and equality. We are fortunate that we still have with us number of the veterans of the 1956 march and earlier struggles. They will mark this great day together with us not only in Pretoria, but also in Durban, Cape Town and in the Chris Hani municipality of the Eastern Cape.

We are pleased to report that a great deal of enthusiasm and energy has been generated by this commemoration. We expect a record number of people to participate in this year’s commemoration.

Thank you

back to top