Speech of Mpumalanga MEC for Safety and Security, Honourable D Pule, at the launch of the Mpumalanga Women's Month Programme about the 50th anniversary of the Women's March to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956
Programme Director,
Members of Executive Council,
Members of Parliament,
Members of the Provincial Legislature,
Honourable mayors,
Honourable Speakers,
Director-General,
Heads of departments,
Esteemed guests,
Ladies and gentlemen:
It is an honour and privilege for me to be with you on this occasion of the launch of the Provincial Womenâs Month Programme. We meet here today in the âAge of Hopeâ through struggle to freedom after a momentous event that took place some 12 years ago in this country, a transition from the monstrous, evil and racist apartheid system to a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic system of governance. I am pleased to say to this gathering tonight that, that system which negated the humanity of the majority of people in this country, that system which treated blacks like dirt and non-humans is gone. For this we give thanks to God, our mass democratic movement structures and our leaders and we will continue to celebrate this historical victory of truth against falsehood and deception, justice against injustice and light against darkness. Our God has been extremely gracious to us and has shown extra-ordinary love for us people of South Africa.
Our purpose for meeting here tonight is to launch the provincial Womenâs Month programme and unveil the banner about the 50th commemoration of the Womenâs March to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. We do so during the year 2006 which has been declared the âYear of the Women in South Africaâ. The significance of this declaration arises from the fact that year 2006 marks the 50th anniversary of the womenâs march to the Union Buildings on 9 August 1956.On this day, 20 000 women from all parts of South Africa staged a second march on the Union Buildings. They left petitions containing more than 100 000 signatures at the Prime Minister JG Strijdomâs door.
The province is in line with the main objectives of the 50th anniversary campaign that were made known to the nation during the national launch that took place during the International Womenâs Day on 8 March 2006 in the Western Cape to:
* celebrate and honour the icons of the liberation struggle
* acknowledge contributions by women towards the achievement of democracy in South Africa
* conscientise the nation that women should be treated fairly and embraced as an integral part of our political and economic activities
* emphasise that the upliftment and empowerment of women is fundamental in strengthening our democracy
* mobilise women towards a social movement that will transcend all boundaries and make a difference to the lives of women worldwide.
Hence we would like to award all those women icons who came from all parts of the province and joined others from other provinces and racial groups during the historic march in 1956.As they are awarded we would be recognising the role they played and the impact that they may have made towards building a non-sexist South Africa. We hope to create a platform for interaction amongst women inside and outside government and indeed celebrate our historic milestones.
The government attempted to get women to carry passes as early as 1913 but was met with such severe resistance that it did not make the attempt again until the National Party (NP) came to power in 1948. By the time the native abolition of passes and co-ordination of Documents Act was enacted in 1952, a large number of women had moved to the urban areas to seek employment and keep their families together. For the NP this represented a permanent urban labour force and therefore, a serious threat to the apartheid structures they were designing. The 1952 Act was intended to permit only the necessary labour for industrial and domestic work into urban areas. Passes were to be extended to women. However, as a result of the earlier campaigns the government did not announce until October 1955 that passes would be issued to women beginning in January 1956.
In the 1950s the apartheid regimeâs increasingly repressive policies began to pose a direct threat to all people of colour and there was a surge of mass political action by blacks in defiant response. Women were prominent in virtually all avenues of protest but to none were they more committed than the anti-pass campaign. They fought the pass laws as they had fought no other issue. They saw passes as the symbol of their deepest oppression. It was through the pass laws that the influx system was enforced. Influx control turned their husbands into migrant labours and made them widows. Passes derived them of the basic right to live with their husbands and to raise their children in a stable family unit.
The apartheid regimeâs influx control measures and pass laws were what women feared the most and reacted to most vehemently. Nor were their fears unfounded. In 1952 the Native Laws Amendment Act tightened influx control making it an offence for any African, including women, to be in any urban area for more than 72 hours unless in possession of the necessary documentation.
The only women who could live legally in the townships were the wives and unmarried daughters of the African men who were eligible for permanent residence.
As soon as the announcement was made that they must carry passes the women organised a demonstration. The anti-pass campaign had started officially when 146 female delegates, representing 230 000 women from all parts of the country, attended a gathering in 1955 with the following objective to bring women of South Africa together to secure full equality of opportunity for all women, regardless of race, colour or creed, to remove social and legal and economic disabilities, to work for the protection of the women and children of our land.
The first national protest took place on 27 October 1955 when 2 000 women of all races marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria planning to meet with certain Cabinet Ministers, but the Ministers pointedly refused to receive the delegation. The success of the October 1955 gathering was highly motivating and buoyed up the women to capitalise on their success. From 1955 onwards the pass issue became a single most important focus of their militancy. The ANC as the major anti-government party identified itself closely with the campaign.
Passes were first issued in March 1956 in the Orange Free State in the town of Winburg, where many women were arrested when they burned their passes. At that time, although it was not mandatory to carry a pass, if one had a pass it was illegal to destroy it. Here in Nelspruit in the then eastern Transvaal women attacked the car of the magistrate when he announced that passes would be distributed. When five women were arrested, 300 women marched to demand their release. Police made a baton charge and then opened fire. Four people were hurt. The following day, the women organised a strike. Police fired on crowds again and eight Africans were wounded. When police conducted extensive raids they arrested 140 people. The women were forced to accept the passes.
On the day that passes were to be distributed in Standerton in the then south-eastern Transvaal, all 914 women who went to protest to the Mayor were arrested for taking part in an illegal procession. But the women were undaunted. Although the will to resist the passes had not changed, the reality of government coercion forced more and more women to accept them. Resistance and demonstrations continued but by March 1960, 3 020 281 women or about 75 percent of the adult women had accepted the passes. Winnie Madikizela Mandela, one of the leading South African women who had herself severely restricted by the regime for almost 17 years, explained why women were forced to accept passes. I quote:
âWe have to carry passes which we abhor because we cannot have houses without them, we cannot work without them, we are endorsed out of towns without them, we cannot register births without them, we are not even expected to die without themâ close quote.
The womenâs anti-pass campaign had lasted for more than a decade. They had resisted the implementation of laws that threatened the very core of their existence, their position in society, their ability to provide for their children and their capacity to create for their husbands and children a stable and secure family life. The women had clung to their last remaining freedom, the freedom of movement, with tenacity unparalleled in other struggles. Although they were defeated in their immediate objectives they had gained their rightful place in the struggle for liberation. The courage and determination displayed by South African women in their refusal to accept the restrictive passes epitomises their over-all participation in the struggle to eradicate apartheid.
We want to take this opportunity and wish all the women of Mpumalanga and South Africa well during their 50th anniversary of courage and determination to fight apartheid. We urge them to draw strength from their refusal to accept the restrictive passes, to now refuse poverty and all evils by waging a war against them. Wathintaâ bafazi, Strijdom! Wathintaâ imbokodo, wena!
I thank you!
Issued by: Department of Safety and Security, Mpumalanga Provincial Government
