Ramaphosa urges families to help identify unnamed 1956 Women’s marchers

President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on families and communities across South Africa to come forward with the names and stories of women who took part in the historic 1956 Women’s march, saying the country’s history cannot be complete while thousands of the marchers remain unnamed. Speaking at the 70th anniversary commemoration of the Women’s March at theUnion Buildingsin Pretoria on Sunday, Ramaphosa urged families who have stories, photographs or memories of the women who marched to submit them to the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and the Sophie & Henry De Bruyn Legacy Foundation. “I call on every family and everyone who knew anyone of those women who marched, who took part in that march to come forward and present their story, their memory to these two foundations so that we can complete the roll call of courage and honour.

So let us do so,” said Ramaphosa. Read:Lesufi vows crackdown on drugs and illegal firearms on Women’s Day On August 9 1956, an estimated 20,000 women marched to the Union Buildings to protest against apartheid pass laws for Black women. The march became one of the defining moments of South Africa’s struggle against apartheid with women delivering petitions against the pass laws to then prime minister JG Strijdom.

Seventy years later, the identities of many of those who participated remain unknown. Ramaphosa said efforts by the two foundations to identify the women were helping restore an important part of South Africa’s history. “We know the names of some, but we do not yet have the names of all of them.

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We therefore welcome the work that is being done by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation and the Sophie & Henry De Bruyn Foundation through the Write Her Into Story campaign. We thank you because through the campaign you have started, you are restoring the names and the stories of the women of 1956 to our national memory,” he said. Ramaphosa said he had personally encountered one of the women who had taken part in the march and whose story demonstrated that the historic protest was driven not only by prominent political leaders but also by ordinary women who made the decision to participate. Read:Illegal mining causing Joburg substations to collapse, says City Power

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