CYRIL RAMAPHOSA|
TOMORROW we will commemorate the day in 1956 when thousands of women marched on the Union Buildings to protest against apartheid pass laws.
We are all familiar with the iconic image of Rahima Moosa, Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Sophie Williams de Bruyn marching defiantly up the stairs of the amphitheatre of the Union Buildings on that historic day.
In their hands were thousands of petitions from women across the country to Prime Minister JG Strijdom. The petition opens with the words: “We are women of every race, we come from the cities and the towns, from the reserves and the villages. We come as women united in our purpose to save the African women from the degradation of passes.”
They spoke about the impact these pass laws would have on black women. Families would be broken up and children left uncared for. They spoke of fear of
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