Ramaphosa lauds 1956 Women’s March, credits them for SA’s freedom

President Cyril Ramaphosa has lauded the thousands of women who marched to the Union Buildings in 1956 to protest against the extension of pass laws to women. He states that it is due to the women of South Africa that the country enjoys freedom today.

Ramaphosa was addressing the 2024 Women’s Day Commemoration in Pofadder, Northern Cape on Friday.

“Today, we have our freedom because the women of our country also marched to the Union Buildings on the 9th of August. So, in many ways than one, we, as South Africans, and especially we, the men in South Africa, must say thank you to the women of our country of 1956 who were brave, maybe even braver than us men, who marched against the might of the apartheid state. So we say thank you! Thank you! …. the women of South Africa.”

This annual public holiday commemorates an eventful day in South Africa’s history where on this day, in 1956, Sophia Williams De Bruyn, Rahima Moosa, Helen Joseph, Lillian Ngoyi and Lilian Diedericks led 20 000 women to the Union Buildings in protest.

Women’s Day | President Ramaphosa’s address:

Poverty in South Africa

Ramaphosa has lamented the conditions under which many South African women live. The President has acknowledged that much more needs to be done to advance women in the country.

“When you want to understand poverty in South Africa, you just need to look at the face of a black woman, of a coloured woman. Black women are more likely to be unemployed, to be poor, and to be unskilled. Cultural norms and practices continue to hold women back. Many women in our country still do not have their homes, and still do not have places where they can bring up their children. Many women in our country still live in shacks and this is what we must correct.”

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-Additional reporting by Zoleka Qodashe