In memory of that historic event we will be marching from the Waaihoek church to Hoffman Square along Maitland Street, which will be renamed Charlotte Maxeke Street, after the women who organised that very first protest action by women. It begins from 13:30pm
It will then proceed to the University of the Free State where the President of the ANC, Comrade Jacob Zuma will be delivering the centenary Charlotte Maxeke memorial lecture in honour of the first President of the ANC Women’s League and the founder of the women’s struggle in South Africa.
All women are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item along to the event which will be collected and handed over to needy child headed households in the community.
It will be attended by the ANCWL President, Angie Motshekga, Deputy President, Nosipho Ntwanambi, Secretary General, Sisisi Tolashe, Deputy SG, Mpai Mogorosi, Treasurer General Hlengiwe Mkhize and other ANCWL NEC members.
* IFP wishes all South African women a happy women’s day.
With numerous preparations for events aimed at celebrating Women’s day well underway across the South Africa borders, the IFP in Gauteng takes this opportunity to wish all South African women a glorious and happy Women’s Month and Day.
The IFP affirms its commitment to continue calling on all South African women to persist the fight started on the 9th August 1956 by a faction of fantastic and yet ordinarily extraordinary women.
The rationale behind these women being labeled ‘ordinarily extraordinary women’ is primarily because of their keenness for redress and equality and the effort they made in changing their particular space.
“While it is imperative to congratulate and always be conscious of the strides made by women in high political and private sector echelons. Our impassioned call is for ‘ordinarily extraordinary women’ to start taking centre stage in celebration of Women’s Month and Day,” asserts IFP Caucus Leader in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) Bonginkosi Dhlamini.
IFP in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature believes that despite every South African woman being entitled to being considered an ‘ordinarily extraordinary woman’,additional attention needs be given to women who really do the most humble of jobs and are not necessarily lifted by media reports.
While the national theme for this year is “56 years of women united against poverty, inequality and unemployment”, the IFP would like to advocate for it to be more about celebrating ordinary South African women who are making efforts everyday to try and tackle thorny issues such as poverty and unemployment.
As the IFP we are extremely concerned that there are three basic issues which aren’t being attended to by government and they include; empowering women by helping them start small scale businesses, motivating girls to excel at school and afford them an opportunity to further their dreams and lastly the disheartening issue of safety under which rape and indecent assaults are seemingly insurmountable.
“Additionally the IFP is in harmony with the pervasive consensus that South Africa has positive policies aimed at advancing women socially and economically. However we feel that, formidable challenges still linger and the implementation of this policies is taking too long and this sometimes pushes back the advances and made by women,” concludes Dhlamini.
