Culture on preparations for the Commemoration of the 1956 Womenâs Anti-Pass
March on the Union Buildings
3 August 2006
South African Womenâs 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 commence with the re-enactment of the 1956
march from the Pretoria Central Business District (CBD) to the Union Buildings.
Marchers are expected to assemble in Strijdom Square, near the State Theatre,
from 07h00. At 08h40 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 memorandum to the Deputy President.
Marchers and all other participants in the commemoration will gather on the
lawns of the Union Buildings. President Thabo Mbekiâs address to the nation
will be at around 11h20 at whose conclusion the President will unveil 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 âKwela Democracy!â 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!
9 August commemorates the 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 womenâs 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 Womenâs 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 could play;
where an African could travel; when an African could travel. Virtually every
facet of an Africanâs 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 1800s 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 Africansâ
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 opportunities and by the collapse of rural economies in the
âreservesâ. 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 officials 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
Northwest during 1956 and â57, it 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.
9 August, South African Womenâs 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, where there will be similar
marches.
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 yearâs commemoration.
Thank you
Issued by: Department of Arts and Culture
3 August 2006
