Women’s League Elective Conference to be Held on Women’s Day

Each year our movement celebrates International Women’s Day on 8 March and National Women’s Day on 9 August.

National Women’s Day is held on the anniversary of the march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria by 20 000 women on 9 August 1956. The women were led in their march by Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia De Bruyn. The main song was WATHINTA ABAFAZI WATHINTA IMBOKODO !

Today women enjoy many important rights on paper but many of these rights do not exist in reality. Women are not safe at work, in the streets or in our homes. Women continue to be exploited and abused at work and millions of women remain without work. Women who are working informally, such as street traders and sex workers, continue to face state harassment. Many women remain without land and our homes are regularly attacked by the state and private security and we remain vulnerable to predatory political elites wanting to capture, sell and rent land and houses. Many traditional leaders discriminate against women when allocating land, participating in decision making and resolving disputes. The majority of poor people are women.

Our movement is committed to building women’s power from below, and to struggling for women to have access to land, secure homes and the right to participate in all discussions and decision making. We are committed to opposing all forms of violence against women, and to building a culture of peace. We are committed to struggling to ensure that all women have the financial means to secure their autonomy so that they can freely choose to enter and leave relationships with men. We are committed to opposing all forms of ethnic discrimination, xenophobia and homophobia.

A woman is a woman irrespective of where she was born, what language she speaks or who she loves.

We have faced severe repression in our struggle and some of our woman comrades have given their lives in our struggle. They were all killed by men.

On 30 September 2013 Nqobile Nzuza was murdered by the police in Cato Crest. She was 17 years old.

On 29 September 2014 Thuli Ndlovu was assassinated in KwaNdengezi on the order of two ANC ward councillors.

On 5 May 2022 Nokuthula Mabaso was assassinated in Cato Crest by the local ANC.

We are outside the prisons but it still feels like we are in a kind of bigger prison, like the whole world is really a prison for us. Our homes are destroyed and we are murdered by the police and the izinkabi when we stand up for our humanity. Our daughters are raped and our children, our sons and daughters, are killed. There is no respect for our lives and dignity, or for our homes and families.

This year we will hold the elective conference for the Abahlali baseMjondolo Women’s League in Durban on National Women’s Day, 9 August. Our membership has been tasked with electing leaders that can push our Women Can Do It campaign, which had four pillars.

1. Women and land

2. Women in Leadership

3. Women and Livelihoods

4. Women in opposition to gender based violence and femicide

We strongly support women to accept nominations to stand for election to leadership positions. Around 60% of the members of our movement are women but not all women were confidence to accept nominations to stand for election for leadership positions. In 2017 we started workshops with Women Can Do It to encourage women to stand for leadership positions. We are pleased that many branches have women chairpersons.

We also strongly support each other to be in solidarity during hard times, to face depression and anxiety, and to oppose all forms of abuse in relationships and families including sexual abuse, physical abuse and psychological abuse including verbal abuse and silent treatment.

The elective conference will be held at the Dennis Hurley Centre in Durban at 9:00 am on 9 August 2024. We will also hold a Women Can Do It workshop in Gauteng