1994 was a very eventful year for South Africa. Marking the official end of the apartheid era, it was a year of many firsts. Our country held its first democratic election between Apr. 26 and 29, allowing South Africans of all races to vote as equals for the very first time. To commemorate this milestone, Apr. 27 was declared Freedom Day, and the first national celebration was held in 1995. This year, we celebrate 31 years of democracy, a powerful achievement, but also a moment to pause and ask: Are we truly all equal and free?
The saying goes, “Behind every successful man, there is a strong woman.” Behind our liberation is a long list of women who organised, marched, resisted, and sacrificed for the rights we have today. As we honour the road to liberation, it is important to remember the women who helped pave that road. Often in the background, often unacknowledged, and almost always underestimated.
Let’s take a moment to commend some of them:
The year 1994 was a very eventful year for South Africa. Marking the official end of the apartheid era – it was a year of many firsts. Our country held its first democratic election between Apr. 26 and 29, allowing South Africans of all races to vote as equals for the very first time. To commemorate this milestone, Apr. 27 was declared Freedom Day, and the first national celebration was held in 1995. This year, we celebrate 31 years of democracy, a powerful achievement, but also a moment to pause and ask: Are we truly all equal and free?
The saying goes, “Behind every successful man, there is a strong woman.” Behind our liberation, is a long list of women who organised, marched, resisted, and sacrificed for the rights we have today. As we honour the road to liberation, it is important to remember the women who helped pave that road. Often in the background, often unacknowledged, and almost always underestimated.
Let’s take a moment to commend some of them:
Women Who Fought for Our Freedom
- Lilian Ngoyi: SA’s “mother of the black resistance”, the first female member of the national executive committee and one of the leaders of the Women’s March against pass laws on Aug. 9, 1956, now commemorated yearly on Women’s Day.
- Ruth First: Ruth First was a South African anti-apartheid activist, journalist, and scholar who exposed injustice through her writing and research. Even in exile, she remained deeply committed to the struggle—until her life was tragically cut short by an apartheid-era assassination in Mozambique in 1982, a brutal attempt to silence her voice and the cause she so fiercely defended.
- Amina Cachilia: a dedicated anti-apartheid and women’s rights activist who began her political journey as a teenager, influenced by her family and early mentors. She was a key figure in the Defiance Campaign and a founding member of the Federation of South African Women, she spent her life fighting for racial and gender equality in South Africa.
- Letta Mbulu: Letta Mbulu, born in Soweto, gained international acclaim in exile through music and film, and returned to South Africa to continue her impactful artistic and political work.
- Elizabeth Abrahams: A pioneering trade unionist and anti-apartheid activist who fought for workers’ and women’s rights, despite government repression. She was widely honoured for her contributions to South Africa’s liberation.
Not Yet Uhuru – Freedom Isn’t Finished
We often say, “We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams.” But until all their dreams are realised, we carry their unfinished work. While we are no longer fighting apartheid, South African women are still fighting against gender-based violence (GBV), crushing economic inequality, and systems that continue to silence us and rob us of the justice we deserve.
South Africa has one of the highest rates of femicide in the world, and behind every statistic is a name, a face, a life stolen. This year, on Apr. 20, the country – and more specifically the community of UCT (University of Cape Town) – remembered Uyinene Mrwetyana, who should have been celebrating her 25th birthday. Instead, we mourn a young woman whose life was cut short by a brutal act of gender-based violence. What was done to Uyinene is a loud and painful reminder of the ongoing crisis of violence against women in South Africa. Her story shook the nation to its core—not just because of the brutality, but because she was one of many. Her death sparked protests, ignited conversations, and reignited a movement demanding safety, justice, and systemic change.
To remember Uyinene is to remember all the women who are silenced before their time. It is to acknowledge that we live in a society where walking home, going to work, or collecting a parcel can be dangerous simply because one is a woman. Her memory calls us to action because remembrance without change is not enough. We cannot keep losing women and calling it normal.
Aluta Continua, We Keep Going
So, what now? I say we take inspiration from the women who came before us, the ones who refused to stay silent, even when it cost them everything. Let us now refuse to look the other way and honour all women, not just with words but with action:
- Support survivors and initiatives like the Uyinene Mrwetyana Foundation
- Speak out against injustice
- Educate ourselves and others
- Create safe spaces for girls and women
- Hold systems and wrongdoers accountable
- Mentor the generation coming after us (both boys and girls)
The fight continues, and so does the sisterhood. We are not free, until we all are.