DONNA E POLITICA
"Repeal the Pass Laws... A Great Demonstration to Parliament"
The possession of reference books: a condition of employment
ANC WL programme of action for 2003-2007: aims and objectives of the WL programme
|
Women have played an important role in the liberation struggle as members of the ANC, as trade unionists and in other capacities.
They
carried on militant campaigns against the pass laws. Many women
suffered restriction, imprisonment, torture and even brutal
assassination by the racist regime. The Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW), a multi-racial body, was established on 17 April 1954, with the ANC Women's League, to organise a united struggle against apartheid. Ruthless repression by the regime prevented FSAW and the Women's League from functioning after 1960.
But women found ways
to continue their resistance
through new legal organisations
|
Preamble: We, the women of South Africa, wives and mothers, working women and housewives, African, Indians, European and Coloured, hereby declare our aim of striving for the removal of all laws, regulations, conventions and customs that discriminate against us as women, and that deprive us in any way of our inherent right to the advantages, responsibilities and opportunities that society offers to any one section of the population.
A Single Society: We women do not form a society separate from the men.
Test of Civilisation: The level of civilisation which any society has reached can be measured by the degree of freedom that its members enjoy. The status of women is a test of civilisation.
Women's Lot: We know the burden of looking after children and land when our husbands are away in the mines, on the farms, and in the towns earning our daily bread.
Poor and Rich: We women have stood and will stand shoulder to shoulder with our menfolk in a common struggle against poverty, race and class discrimination, and the evils of the colourbar.
National Liberation: As members of the National Liberatory movements and Trade Unions, we march forward with our men in the struggle for liberation and the defence of the working people. We pledge ourselves to keep high the banner of equality, fraternity and liberty.
Equality for Women: We recognise that the women are treated as minors by these marriage and property laws.
Women who Labour: They are responsible for their own person and their children. Yet the law seeks to enforce upon them the status of a minor..
Obstacle to Progress: The law has lagged behind the development of society. The law has become an obstacle to progress of the women, and therefore a brake on the whole of society.
We shall teach the men that they cannot hope to liberate themselves from the evils of discrimination and prejudice as long as they fail to extend to women complete and unqualified equality in law and in practice.
Need for Education: It is our intention to carry out a nation-wide programme of educa- tion
This organisation is formed for the purpose of uniting women in common action for the removal of all political, legal, economic and social disabilities.
We shall strive for women to obtain:
The right to vote and to be elected to all State bodies, without restriction or discrimination.
The right to full opportunities for employment with equal pay and possibilities of promotion in all spheres of work.
Equal rights with men in relation to property, marriage and children, and for the removal of all laws and customs that deny women such equal rights.
For the development of every child through free compulsory education for all;
For the protection of mother and child through maternity homes, welfare clinics, creches and nursery schools, in countryside and towns; through proper homes for all, and through the provision of water, light, transport, sanitation, and other amenities of modern civilisation.
For the removal of all laws that restrict free movement, that prevent or hinder the right of free association and activity in democratic organisations, and the right to participate in the work of these organisations.
To build and strengthen women's sections in the National Liberatory movements, the organisation of women in trade unions, and through the peoples' varied organisation.
To cooperate with all other organisations that have similar aims in South Africa as well as throughout the world.
To strive for permanent
peace throughout the world.
1955: the Minister of Native Affairs stated "African women will be issued with passes as from January 1956". The law had been amended in 1950 to enable the government to introduce passes for women. Up until then only African men had been obliged to carry passes. A women's anti-pass movement immediately began to grow. The first big protest against the pass laws took place in October 1955. Protests grew all over the country and culminated in a mass demonstration at the Union Buildings, Pretoria, on 9 August 1956 - the day that has since be designated as "Women's Day" in South Africa. Hundreds of thousands of signatures on petition forms such as the above were deposited at the office of the Prime Minister who, of course, was not available to receive them.
Petition presented to the Prime Minister, Pretoria, 9 August 1956:
We, the women of South Africa, have come here today. We represent and we speak on behalf of hundreds of thousands of women who could not be with us. But all over the country, at this moment, women are watching and thinking of us. Their hearts are with us.
Raids, arrests, loss of pay, long hours at the pass office, weeks in the cells awaiting trial, forced farm labour -this is what the pass laws have brought to African men. Punishment and misery - not for a crime, but for the lack of a pass.
We African women know too well the effect of this law upon our homes, our children. We, who are not African women, know how our sisters suffer.
We want to tell you what the pass would mean to an African woman, and we want you to know that whether you call it a reference book, an identity book, or by any other disguising name, to us it is a PASS . And it means just this:-
That homes will be broken up when women are arrested under pass laws
That children will be left uncared for, helpless, and mothers will be torn from their babies for failure to produce a pass
That women and young girls will be exposed to humiliation and degradation at the hands of pass-searching policemen
That women will lose their right to move freely from one place to another.
In
the name of women of South Africa, we say to you, each one of us,
African, European, Indian, Coloured, that we are opposed to the pass
system.
Who knows better than any African woman what it means to have a husband who must carry a pass? The women know that:
PASSES MEAN PRISON;
PASSES MEAN BROKEN HOMES;
PASSES MEAN SUFFERING AND MISERY FOR EVERY AFRICAN FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY;
PASSES ARE JUST ANOTHER WAY IN WHICH THE GOVERNMENT MAKES SLAVES OF THE AFRICANS;
PASSES MEAN HUNGER AND UNEMPLOYMENT;
PASSES ARE AN INSULT.
And the Government is trying to force our WOMEN to carry passes too
No woman is fooled by the "Reference Book." We know that this is the same as a pass. If a woman is found without this book or if all the papers inside are not in order, she will be pushed into the Kwela-Kwela and taken to gaol. Her children will be left motherless.
TO PAY FOR THIS ''REFERENCE BOOK'' IS TO BUY SLAVERY
The Government has tried to make women carry passes for many years and each time the women have given their answer. By standing united, protesting with one voice and organising all areas around this wicked law, the women are trying to achieve the abolition of the pass law system with its vicious attack on their liberty.
Women of South Africa will always oppose the carrying of passes. With all our strength we must fight against this attack on ourselves, our mothers. sisters, children and families.
EVERY WOMAN MUST SIGN A PLEDGE. STATING HER FIRM OPPOSITION TO THE PASS SYSTEM.
Let us pledge ourselves to end the whole pass system--for men as well as for women
Let us have the biggest demonstration of women ever held.
Let us show Verwoerd that we will never bow down to his brutality.
DOWN WITH THE PASS SYSTEM!
Passes are passports to prisons.
LET US GIVE THE GOVERNMENT THE ANSWER BY HOLDlNG.
Meeting Place at Medical Centre, Dock Road (Bottom of St. George's
Street), Cape Town
-The possession of reference books: a condition of employment-
By 1960, an estimated 3,O2O,28l African women - approximately 75 per cent of the adult female population - had accepted passes.
Although it was not yet compulsory for women to take out reference books, they were subject to severe disabilities if they did not have them. Women without reference books:
1. They could not rent houses in the urban areas, or they lost those that they had.
2. They could not register the births of their children or be married according to common law.
3. They could not receive old age pensions or maintenance grants.
4. They were not issued driver`s licences.
5. Teachers and nurses without passes were dismissed from their jobs.
The last anti-pass demonstrations took place in March 1960... The days of anti-pass protests were over.
1962, the Government announced that all African women, aged 16 and over, must carry reference books.
The women`s anti-pass campaign had lasted for more than a decade. Tens of thousands of women had participated in the resistance. The women had fought the pass legislation with unprecedented militancy. Unlike African men, who had lost this freedom generations before, the women still hoped to avoid the inevitable.
They had shown that men could not hope to liberate themselves if women were relegated to a subordinate status.
|
Women arrested under the Pass Laws: 1979 - 1983 These figures do not give the total numbers arrested, as those given for arrests by Administration board officials are only for the main urban areas of South Africa.
Source: Official figures given in response to questions in parliament, 1980 - 84 |
-ANC WL PROGRAMME OF ACTION FOR 2003-2007:
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE WL PROGRAMME-
To fight for Women’s emancipation and gender equality.
To place the WL at the centre of the struggle for Women’s emancipation.
To build a strong network with women’s organizations, NGO’s, CBO’s.
To strengthen on relations with the gender structures of the Alliance.
To fight for Women’s rights and ensure that they are treated as human rights.
To build a strong Women’s movement in the country, which will link us to women in the continent and the world over.
Anche il Sud Africa fa un passo in avanti -per altro di portata storica - sul tema delle unioni di fatto. La legge si esprime favorevolmente ai legami anche omossessuali di tipo matrimoniale.
La strada verso l'approvazione della legge è cominciata un anno fa, quando la Corte Costituzionale con una sua sentenza ha accolto l'istanza di una coppia gay, offrendo al Parlamento un anno di tempo per legiferare a favore della fine di quelle limitazioni che ancora discriminavano le unioni omosessuali. La Costituzione sudafricana è infatti la prima al mondo a vietare esplicitamente qualsiasi discriminazione basata sulle inclinazioni sessuali dei cittadini; la nostra stessa Carta costituzionale parla di uguaglianza di fronte alla legge per sesso, razza e religione, senza accennare minimamente all'inclinazione o alla scelta sessuale.
Sono molti i paesi africani, Camerun in primis, in cui essere omosessuali è ancora un reato. Per questo la scelta del Sud Africa, pur con tutti i suoi limiti, rimane comunque un segnale importante.
-WOMEN EMPOWERED: WOMEN IN SOUTH AFRICAN PARLIAMENT-
|
ELECTION TO THE PARLIAMENT |
TOTAL ELECTED |
PRESENCE of women |
|
During the Apartheid |
|
2.8 % |
|
1994 |
490 |
25 % |
|
1999 |
490 |
29 % |
IN 1999 SOUTH AFRICA PLACED ITSELF IN THE TOP-TEN IN TERMS OF REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN.
The commitment to gender equality in the new government was affirmed by the
election of Frene Ginwala as Speaker of the National Assembly, and later with the appointment of Baleka Kgositsile as Deputy Speaker.
Whereas the apartheid government in 1994 had only one woman Cabinet Minister (for health) and one Deputy Minister (for justice), in the Cabinet appointed in 1999, nine of the 29 Ministers were women (31 per cent).
The increase in women's political participation is the result of two main factors:
1. the work of the women in the ANC
2. the policies and affirmative action mechanisms adopted by the ANC
-The Results: Delivery of Resources to Women and the Poor-
The fruits of government policy and parliamentary legislation have now begun to be seen in the delivery of critical resources and services to the poorest South Africans. Between 1994 and 1999, some of the achievements included:
• The building of 260 clinics, focusing on the most disadvantaged rural areas, and the upgrading of 2,358 clinics;
• Tax law reforms, removing discrimination against women in income tax;
• The renovation of 1,497 schools and the building of 4,308 classrooms;
• The feeding of 5.5 million children in school feeding schemes;
• The immunization of 63.3 per cent of all babies before the age of one, and an additional 10 per cent by the age of two;
• The introduction of free medical care for children under the age of six and for pregnant mothers;
• The approval of programmes to provide basic services of water and sanitation to millions of people;
• The provision of housing subsidies to millions of people and the building of close to one million houses;
• The provision of municipal infrastructure including water, electricity, sanitation, solid waste removal, roads, storm drains and community facilities to benefit 3.5 million people;
• ESKOM's installation of electricity in 313,179 households, connecting 1.5 million people; and
• Programmes to provide electricity to 25,900 rural schools and about 2,000 rural clinics.
