Women's Month
South Africa commemorates Women’s Month in August as a tribute to the more than 20 000 women who marched to the Union Buildings on the 9th of August 1956, in protest against the extension of Pass Laws to women. In 1995, the Government of South Africa declared August women’s month, with the 9th of the month being celebrated annually as Women’s Day.
This year, the Women’s month will be commemorated under the theme “The Year of OR Tambo: Women United in Moving South Africa Forward”
The 2017 National Women’s Day celebrations pay tribute to women and their role in the liberation struggle. This year’s celebration coincides with the centenary of struggle icon OR Tambo. OR Tambo was a strong advocate for gender equality. During the Conference of the Women in Luanda in 1981, he said: “The mobilisation of women is the task, not only of women alone, or of men alone, but of all of us, men and women alike, comrades in struggle. The mobilisation of the people into active resistance and struggle for liberation demands the energies of women no less than of men.”