Mzansi celebrates Women's Day on Thursday, a day set aside to commemorate the 9 August 1956 march, when approximately 20 000 descended on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to petition against the country’s Apartheid pass laws.
Here are six South African classics streaming on Showmax that capture the courage of South African woman - and the issues they still face.
Sink
Rachel, a Mozambican domestic worker living in Johannesburg, is forced to make a life-changing decision after her daughter dies while under the care of her employers: return to poverty-stricken Mozambique or continue working for the people responsible for the death of her child. Things become even more complicated when she finds out that her employers are expecting their first child.
Dis Ek, Anna
Based on a true story told in an award-winning book of the same name, Dis Ek, Anna is a courtroom drama about the case of a woman who killed her stepfather after suffering years of sexual abuse.
Tess
Sassy 20-year-old Tess sells her body on Cape Town’s streets. She survives by popping painkillers and through her wry humour. But her life turns upside down when she falls pregnant.
Elelwani
After her University graduation, Elelwani (Florence Masebe) returns to her rural family to introduce her boyfriend and announce their plans to emigrate and spend the rest of their lives together, but her father has promised her to the local king instead.
Little One
A six-year-old girl is left for dead outside a township in Johannesburg but is found by a woman (Lindiwe Ndlovu) who takes her to hospital and then oversees her recovery.
u-Carmen eKhayelitsha
In this update of George Bizet’s classic opera, Carmen, Pauline Malefane plays a township woman who will not be tamed, who seduces a religious policeman into a fatal affair.