Women’s March leader Sophie de Bruyn calls for new mobilisation against gender-based violence

Seventy years after marching to theUnion Buildingsagainst apartheid, the last surviving leader of the 1956 Women’s March, Sophie de Bruyn, delivered a sobering assessment of democratic South Africa, saying the country’s women remain trapped by gender-based violence, poverty and inequality. Speaking at the National Women’s Day commemoration at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Sunday, De Bruyn said the freedom for which she and thousands of other women fought had not translated into the safe and prosperous society they had envisioned. “Today, as I look at our beautiful country, my heart is heavy.

The freedom we marched for and for what we breathed is in reality a painful paradox. How can we fully celebrate our historic victories when our present reality is so deeply disappointing and distressful? We fought to banish the pass laws.

Yet today our women are prisoners in their own homes. Gender-based violence continues to cast a dark cloud on our society,” she said. De Bruyn said she continued to mourn the experiences of women and girls subjected to violence and abuse.

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“Every single day I weep for the girl child, the daughters, the mothers and grandmothers who are abused, violated and silenced. This is not the freedom we marched for,” she said. Read:Ramaphosa asks families to help identify 20,000 women who marched in 1956 De Bruyn was 18 when she joined the historic march on August 9 1956, when about 20,000 women marched to the Union Buildings to protest against apartheid pass laws for Black women.

Reflecting on the anniversary, she said she was proud to represent the women who took part in the march, many of whom are no longer alive. “Seventy years ago on this very day, August 9 1956, 20,000 of us marched to these hallowed grounds, to these Union Buildings which were then the bastion of apartheid. I was only 18 years old then and many of my compatriots are sadly no longer with us, it has always been an honour to represent the collective leadership of the march and the 20,000 women.

I’m standing here as their representative and what I am saying here today is what they would have said to you if they were alive,” she said. She recalled how the women stood in silence for 30 minutes during the protest, confronting the apartheid government with a message of defiance. WATCH | Anti-apartheid activist Sophia Williams-De Bruyn has urged young women to use their voices to fight for their future and against poverty and abuse.pic.twitter.com/AdaZLosTd9 “We were young.

We were afraid. But we were unified and determined. When we stood undaunted in silence for 30 minutes, the world trembled.

We confronted the apartheid regime and boldly said, ‘Strijdom (JG, the then prime minister), you have targeted the woman. You have struck a rock. And we will crush you.’” she said.

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