Today we celebrate the 61st anniversary of the women’s march to Pretoria - 20 000 women walked to the Union Buildings in 1956 to protest against the demonic pass laws that black South Africans were forced to carry to justify living in the land of their birth.
They went to the seat of power to make it clear that then Prime Minister JG Strijdom was left in no doubt that they knew their place was not to keep quiet, but demonstrate their strength and commitment to the front line of the Struggle against apartheid. They famously sang wathint’ abafazi, wathint’mbokodo (“when you strike a woman, you strike a rock”).
Women’s Day marked on August 9 is a day on which we reflect on where women are and, sadly, 23 years into our liberation, in the latest scandal against women, a deputy minister has admitted to having struck a woman in the literal sense of the word.
Mduduzi Manana is accused of slapping a woman at a Joburg nightclub in the early hours of Sunday morning. He admitted this to his victim’s brother; his reason being she had apparently provoked him with a comment about his sexuality after an argument over politics.
Most witnesses, it would seem, refrained from getting involved - possibly because of the position held by the man, or fear of getting hurt themselves.
We would expect our political representatives to have much greater self control, and be leaders in the fight against gender-based violence, not perpetrators. Manana has apologised and we hope that, aside from social media censure, relevant action will be taken against him to send out a strong message to society that such behaviour cannot and will not be tolerated in South Africa.
We all know of the gender violence and other discrimination against women. This Women’s Day, let us join hands and say no, not in my name, and no, I will not look away.