SACP salutes all South African women on the 70th anniversary of the Women's 1956 march against apartheid

Sunday, 9 August 2026: The South African Communist Party (SACP) pays tribute to all women in South Africa on the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Women's March against the apartheid system. We pay our respect to the over 20,000 women who bravely marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria against the apartheid system and demanded the end of the pass laws and apartheid system.

The women of 1956 understood very well that the apartheid regime's actions in imposing pass laws were in essence geared towards systematically breaking families, particularly black families, and entrenching the apartheid system. The system's laws also exposed women and young girls to humiliation and degradation at the hands of pass-searching policemen. As a result, those laws meant that women would lose their right of movement, dignity and security. The march was not only a march against the pass laws but also a march for fundamental rights of freedom, justice and security.

The Women's March also helped to dismantle the capitalist-rooted stereotype that characterised women as politically inept and immature, tied to the home. Following the march, women continued to play an integral part in the people's struggle against apartheid and for total social emancipation. The SACP thus pays respect to all the women revolutionaries who have played a critical part in the fight for total social emancipation in our country.

The 1956 Women's March was a working-class struggle and made a sterling contribution to the struggle against colonial oppression and apartheid. The struggle for the emancipation of women must be understood within the context of the national struggle for the emancipation of all the oppressed people, the majority of whom are working-class and poor. Black women have been the most impacted by patriarchal oppression. The phenomenon of "triple oppression" - racial oppression, class exploitation, and gender oppression - had the most profound impact on black women, as they are black, working-class women, thereby positioning them as the most exploited section of society. It is crucial to point out that our struggle is not only a struggle for gender equality but also a struggle to eradicate patriarchy as a system and root out discrimination based on sex as well as eliminating gender-based violence and femicide (GBV+F). This struggle forms a cornerstone of the National Democratic Revolution.

The SACP welcomes the classification of gender-based violence and femicide as a national disaster as part of the efforts towards eradicating the scourge of gender-based violence - in the context of combating all forms of violence - within our country. The classification was important, as it gave our government the primary responsibility for coordinating and managing the national disaster, using existing legislation and the contingency arrangements already established across government. Further, the classification meant that all organs of state were enjoined to strengthen their support to existing GBV+F response structures, to fully implement their contingency arrangements, and to ensure that all necessary mechanisms are activated to enable the government to manage the disaster effectively.

We also welcome the instituting and appointment of members of the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide for a period of three years from 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2029. The Council is tasked with providing strategic leadership on the elimination of gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa.

Indeed, it is unacceptable that an average of 108 reported rapes per day are recorded in South Africa, as our country continues to rank among the most dangerous places in the world for women. Between January and March, South Africa recorded 9,782 rape cases as sexual assaults increased by 4.2 per cent compared to the prior tracking period. These figures represent individuals, human beings with names and families.

While the classification of GBV+F as a national disaster and the measures connected to the classification constitute important steps forward as far as uprooting the scourge, it is crucial that the struggle against capitalism is intensified, as it significantly impacts the daily lives of women, who constitute a particularly vulnerable section of society. We must simultaneously address the escalating cost of living crisis, which demands the recognition and advancement of the right to work for all individuals, especially women.

In addition, the SACP calls for transparency of the work of all the bodies, organisations and institutions that are engaged in the fight against GBV+F, particularly in line with the classification of the scourge as a national disaster. Government reports should also filter down to communities, particularly in the townships and rural areas where the majority of working-class and poor women and families are located. The process should not merely be a government affair for political point-scoring but must show practical advancements which translate to improved safety for women and girls.

The eradication of GBV+F will not succeed without the direct involvement of the working class in our communities. For the SACP, the primary objective for those seeking justice and accountability is the strengthening of working-class power within communities to challenge women's abuse and exploitation. Women must have access to the necessary means and protection to achieve independence, express their opinions without fear, and control their own destiny and decisions. All girls and women must feel safe in their homes, educational institutions, workplaces, recreational spaces, cultural venues, and community settings, regardless of their gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

The SACP calls for the unity of the working class as a whole to intensify the class struggle. These must include both the employed and unemployed workers, the impoverished in general, women and men, the youth, progressive intellectuals, and sections of the middle class and peasantry.

It is also crucial to understand that the commemoration of National Women's Day has an internationalist paradigm. Accordingly, the day should also serve as a point of reflection on other women who suffer various forms of violation across the world. Women and girls in conflict zones particularly endure violent crimes, including rape and murder. We thus call for solidarity with the women of Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo who are victims of these crimes in addition to being displaced. We also reiterate our calls for solidarity with the women of Palestine who have endured various forms of sexual crimes from the genocidal Zionist Israeli regime for over 78 years of occupation of their land. It is also crucial for the people of South Africa to reflect on the violence faced by women who are foreign nationals through vigilante attacks that have swept through our country. As the SACP, we reiterate our call, together with the entire Left movement, against xenophobic violence and rhetoric. Such only fosters the division of the working class and consequently renders it powerless in the fight against its chief enemy - monopoly capital.

Towards the unity of women, the SACP continues to play its role in the construction of a progressive women's movement. The People's Red Caravan, a flagship programme of the SACP, has managed to uplift the economic situation of women and families in the communities. The People's Red Caravan is aimed at deepening inviolable ties with the people at the community level, where households and individual community members confront the daily challenges imposed by the capitalist system - which organises society based on exploitation of the working class.

The People's Red Caravan is a process through which members and leaders of the SACP work in and with communities to collectively address and resolve the problems that the communities experience. It is a practice of building alongside the people, not on their behalf. Rooted in the pursuit of self-empowerment and self-reliance, the Red Caravan initiative rejects disorganising notions of absolute dependency on a "wheelbarrow-like 'delivery' state". The SACP's work during the People's Red Caravan has already borne fruits in Motlhabe Village in Moses Kotane Province (North West), Matibidi Village in Mpumalanga, Mqhekezweni Village in the Eastern Cape, Ganspan community in the Northern Cape, Ixopo Village in Moses Mabhida Province (KwaZulu-Natal), and Gladstone Village in Free State Province.

As part of its programme to unite the working class, the SACP continues to diligently work to strengthen trade unions and their programmes, including targeted recruitment of women workers and a comprehensive women's emancipation programme. It is of utmost importance for the working class, including trade unions, to confront the multifaceted crises inherent in capitalism on all fronts.

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FOUNDED IN 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA.
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