PRETORIA – President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered his keynote address at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on National Women’s Day, Sunday 9 August, marking 70 years since the historic 1956 women’s march.

He vowed to step up the fight against gender-based violence and economic inequality.

The president stood on the very grounds where at least 20 000 women gathered on 9 August 1956 to oppose the apartheid government’s extension of pass laws to women, delivering their petitions to a prime minister who chose not to receive them.

He paid tribute to the leaders of the 1956 march, Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, noting that Williams-De Bruyn, who was just 18 at the time, was present at the commemoration.

“Their 30 minutes of silence was not an act of submission. It was an act of courage. That silence was louder than any command that could have been issued by the apartheid state,” the president said