The deputy police minister, Maggie Sotyu and the Free State education MEC, Tate Makgoe led about 500 women in the “Walk for Education” march to Naval Hill, to mark Women’s Day.
National Women’s Day is an annual public holiday that is celebrated on August 9. The day commemorates the national march of women on that day in 1956, to petition against legislation that required African persons to carry passbooks, special identification documents which curtailed Africans freedom of movement during the apartheid era.
Female employees of the education department from across Free State joined the march, along with the rest of the country, which was held under the theme “A Centenary of Working Together Towards Sustainable Women Empowerment and Gender Equality”.
The department described the walk as reliving the past in honour of those brave women who stopped at nothing to fight for freedom and the liberation of women.
Addressing the women who took part in the walk, Sotyu said it did not come as a surprise that the ruling party took a decision to make education the main priority to address the historical imbalance of gender equality at schools.
“It is an undeniable truth that investing in a girl’s education is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty. Education helps girls and women to know their rights and to gain confidence to claim those rights, which is why the country has committed itself to invest in the education of the youth.”
Sotyu noted that there had been a dramatic increase in the enrolment rate of girls in the country with participation of girls from seven to 15 years’ increased by 100 percent.
Makgoe said the departmental theme for the walk was ‘Education: A Liberating Tool for Women”, because educating a woman means educating the nation. He said the month of August, which has been designated, as Women’s Month, also serves to honour the myriads of women who single-handedly continues to educate their children.
“We encourage women to use education as a liberating tool to succeed in life and maintain the freedom which women of 1956 fought hard for.”
One of the women who participated in the walk up Naval Hill, Kedibone Kebaotlwile, described the march as both recreational and educational, as it reminded her of the women of 1956.
She was happy that commemorations like this one were still being held and feels that South African history should be preserved for future generations, to enable them to know where they come from and where they are headed.
An 83-year-old-woman who also walked up the hill top without assistance, Lillian Mogoadi, said she used to be a teacher and her daughter is also a teacher. When her daughter told her about the woman’s walk, she could not miss out on the opportunity to celebrate the heroines who died for the freedom of this country.
Mogoadi advised the younger generations of women to embrace the country’s history and stop the attitude of living in the present and snubbing history.
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