This Week : 12 August 2018 – Come
This Week : 12 August 2018 – Come

This Week : 12 August 2018 – Come

Bible Reading: John 6:35, 41-51

Dear Friends,

Lest we forget why we celebrate Women’s Day on the 9th August in South Africa. It has nothing to do with honouring women just because we need another “Mother’s Day”, this day commemorates the 9 August 1956 when women participating in a national march petitioned against pass laws. “Pass laws” were legislation that required African persons to carry a
document on them to ‘prove’ that they were allowed to enter a ‘white area’ during the Apartheid regime. On  this day in 1956, over 20 000 women of all races and ages from every corner of South Africa marched together towards the Union Buildings in Pretoria. These brave women were marching in protest against the pass laws that proposed even further restrictions on the movements of women.


Organised by the Federation of South African Women, the March was led by four brave women; Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, Sophie Williams and Lilian Ngoyi. The leaders delivered petitions to Prime Minister JG Strijdom’s
office within the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Women throughout South Africa had put their names to these petitions indicating their anger and frustration at having their freedom of movement restricted by the
hated official passes. To conclude the Women’s March, the women sang freedom songs such as Nkosi sikeleli Afrika, however, the song that became the anthem of the march was:

“Wathint’ abafazi, Strijdom!” wathint’ imbokodo, uza kufa!
When you strike the women, you strike a rock, you will be crushed [you will die]!


The march was a resounding success and South Africa recognises the bravery of these women who risked arrest, detention and banning by declaring 9 August National Women’s Day. This month especially focuses on the gift of women in the whole of creation. Especially living in a
society such as ours, we continue to mourn the injustices, inequality and abuse that women suffer at the hands of men in particular and society in general. As we celebrate women, we also mourn deeply with the family of a
Rhodes University student Khensani Maseko who committed suicide, after she was raped by an alleged fellow student. As disciples of Jesus let us continue to work for the eradication of this scourge. Let us believe without any reservations, support care and never judge nor blame any victim of abuse. Today we stand in solidarity with all women who suffer and our plea is NEVER SUFFER IN SILENCE, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

Solomzi

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.