South Africa

WOMEN’S DAY

‘ANC leadership is not taking advice when it is given to them’ – 1956 march leader Sophia de Bruyn

‘ANC leadership is not taking advice when it is given to them’ – 1956 march leader Sophia de Bruyn
Anti-apartheid struggle veteran Sofie de Bruyn at a Women’s day event to commemorate the Women’s March of 1956. (Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee)

The last surviving leader of the historic 1956 Women’s March, is disappointed in what has become of the ANC, but she remains a member: ‘Sometimes I cry, I swallow a lump in my throat. When we are together with other veterans we bemoan what is going on.’

Anti-apartheid struggle veteran Sophia de Bruyn is encouraging young women today to form an umbrella organisation to unite all women’s movements, like the Federation of South African Women did during apartheid. de Bruyn, the last surviving leader of the historic 1956 Women’s March, was speaking on the sidelines of a commemorative event hosted by the Ahmed Kathrada and Sophie and Henry de Bruyn Legacy Foundation

Later when she was closing out the event at the grave of struggle giant Albertina Sisulu, de Bruyn conceded that the current societal struggles facing women in South Africa would have the struggle icons turning in their graves. 

“This is not what they wanted for this beautiful country and for the future generations,” said de Bruyn. 

Speaking as a member of the ANC, de Bruyn said she was concerned with the current trajectory of the governing party. “It is a very difficult situation especially when you are ANC yourself and you know the mistakes that we’ve made. Our leadership is not taking advice when it is given to them. There is a move to renew but what is this renewal I don’t know. I haven’t seen a blueprint of this renewal. I don’t see the unity [in the ANC]. There is still a sense of talking past one another,” said de Bruyn. 

As a veteran of the struggle against apartheid and leader in the fight for women, de Bruyn conceded that she is hugely disappointed in the current state of the nation. “Sometimes I cry, I swallow a lump in my throat. When we are together with other veterans we bemoan what is going on and we ask, is this what our martyrs, our heroines, our icons, is this what they suffered and died for? Is what is happening today a sign of things to come?

Expanding on her motivation for a women’s movement, De Bruyn said: “The most important thing for our young people to do is to form one big gigantic organisation. You know in the 1950s there were all these different organisations but they were all under the umbrella of the Federation of South African Women. We managed to bring all those formations together under that umbrella and we succeeded without any resources. If women’s organisations can speak with one voice and be unified, that is how I think we can overcome a lot of the ills that have beset our country.” 

Young women activists together with de Bruyn visited the graves of the other three organisers of the Women’s March, namely Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Rahima Moosa. Flowers were laid at the grave of Ngoyi and Joseph who are buried together at Avalon cemetery. As she stood alongside the graves of her two friends de Bruyn addressed a group of young women activists. She encouraged the next generation to get involved in pushing to make the country a better place for women. 

Sofia de Bruyn visiting Avalon cemetary

Anti-apartheid struggle veteran Sofie de Bruyn lays flowers at the joint gravesite of her friends and fellow activists Lilian Ngoyi and Helen Joseph at Avalon cemetery. (Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee)

“We are living in very dangerous and seriously heartbreaking times. And as young people, it is incumbent upon you to get involved,” said de Bruyn. She also noted that she was encouraged and inspired by the work being done by many of the young women activists and offered them some advice. 

“If you are going to be involved you have to be highly committed. You have to be bold and you have to be brave. We fought one enemy and that was the enemy of oppression. But your enemies today are many. You have the enemy of poverty, unemployment and gender-based violence,” said de Bruyn. 

Activist and community organiser Tessa Dooms said that young people took their courage from those that forged the path before and that the current situation in South Africa was unsustainable as young people are left with a feeling of hopelessness. 

“We must take courage from those that came before us and be willing to stand up and build our country. We cannot wait for politicians to do this. The answers lie in us, they lie in our communities and our ability to come together and organise to build the country that we want,” said Dooms. 

The event then moved from Soweto to the Newclare Cemetery where the late struggle icon Rahima Moosa is buried. Moosa was pregnant with her daughter Natasha when she was busy organising the Women’s March in 1956. Natasha was present at her mother’s gravesite and expressed gratitude for the values that she learned from her mother. 

“In remembering my mother I want to say thank you for teaching us that all women and men must be treated equally and with respect and without discrimination of any kind. And that we should always be fair and just and help the poor and downtrodden. And that whenever we are able to we should speak out against injustice,” said Natasha.   DM

Gallery

Comments - Please in order to comment.

  • Jos Verschoor says:

    I salute the ladies of the past and current struggle, and I sincerely hope they can motivate the righteous before it is too late. Greed is besides unimployment, hunger and being sidelined by those who are supposed to care for them, is an unacceptable situation. I’m very unhappy that has come as far as it has thus far, and that they are able to turn the tide, the people of South Africa deserve to reap the benefits what the struggle was intended to achieve.

  • Chris 123 says:

    It’s because they only think of 💰💰💰

  • Rod H MacLeod says:

    Organisations that unite against a common enemy will fall apart when when the binding occasioned by that enemy disappears. In the case of the ANC, no matter how hard they try to keep the “apartheid legacy” argument alive (it is now 28 years dead), the uniting enemy has passed, and so has the reason d’être for this “struggle party”. What we are currently observing is simply a squabble for the remaining spoils – the liberation party is over.

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.