Sophie de Bruyn speaks during the National Women’s Day commemoration at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa, Aug. 9, 2026. (GCIS)

NNA News - Sophie de Bruyn, the last surviving leader of the 1956 South African Women’s March at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, said on Sunday that the freedom women fought for has turned into "a painful paradox".

Speaking exactly 70 years to the day at the Union Buildings, where she helped lead more than 20,000 women in protest against apartheid pass laws, De Bruyn, 88, told attendees at the National Women’s Day commemoration that inequality, violence and corruption were undoing the gains of democracy. "Today, as I look at our beautiful country, my heart is heavy," De Bruyn stressed.  "The freedom we marched for and for which we breathed is in reality a painful paradox. How can we fully celebrate our historic victories when our present reality is so deeply disappointing and distressful?"

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also the president of De Bruyn’s political party, the African National Congress (ANC), attended. He was joined by Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga, Chief Justice Mandisa Maya and National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza. It is the first time in South African history that both the Chief Justice and Speaker are women. The event was held under the theme “Empowered Women, Empowering Nations.” Since 1994, 9 August has been commemorated as National Women’s Day during Women’s Month. 

On the 9th August 1956, at least 20,000 women gathered at the Union Buildings. They were protesting the apartheid government’s decision to extend urban pass laws to women. The pass laws restricted the movement of Black South Africans. That march became an early turning point in the struggle that ended apartheid.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks during a National Women’s Day event in Pretoria, South Africa, Aug. 9, 2026. (GCIS)

De Bruyn said legal equality had not brought safety. "We fought to banish the pass laws. Yet today our women are prisoners in their homes," she told the crowd. She linked the high levels of gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa to failures in governance and accused leaders of misappropriating public funds. "Every single day I weep for the girl child, the daughters, the mothers and grandmothers who are abused, violated and silenced. This is not the freedom we marched for."

De Bruyn also linked the violence to governance failures and accused leaders of stealing public funds. "We fought to dismantle the systemic oppression of women as a race, class and gender. Yet today we feel the cruel suffocation of entrenched poverty, lack of clean drinking water, homelessness and systemic corruption." "When people steal money allocated for education, health, housing and infrastructure, they are in reality stealing education, stealing health and roads. These are real victims of corruption. They are stealing from you and me, who pay our taxes," she further added.

The veteran anti-apartheid activist also said, "It is very disappointing that democratic South Africa is still the most unequal country in the world. The face of poverty and inequality in our country is mainly Black, female and young. The impact of spatial racial segregation is still deeply entrenched." That critique comes from a lifetime of activism. She was born in 1938 in Village Board. It was a mixed Port Elizabeth neighbourhood "that had different nationalities living side by side" before the Group Areas Act. 

Women hold placards protesting apartheid pass laws during the 1956 Women’s March in South Africa. (Archive photo)

She was raised by her grandparents. She later moved with her mother after her father joined the army in World War Two. Left school for the Van Lane Textile factory. She became a shop steward and later an executive member of the Textile Workers Union. There she worked with Raymond Mhlaba, Vuyisile Mini and Govan Mbeki. They were jailed together in 1952 at the Port Elizabeth "Rooi Hel" prison for leading the Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws.  She helped found SACTU, the South African Congress of Trade Unions. In 1955, she became a full-time organiser for the Coloured People’s Congress (CPC) in Johannesburg. 

She campaigned against the 1950 Group Areas Act and Bantu Education. She worked with Helen Joseph, Lillian Ngoyi and Rahima Moosa to organise the women’s march. She also attended the Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955. "Seventy years ago on this very day, August 9, 1956, 20,000 of us marched to these Union Buildings, which were then the bastion of apartheid," she recalled. "I was only 18 years old then, and many of my compatriots are sadly no longer with us. I’m standing here as their representative, and what I am saying here today is what they would have said to you if they were alive." "We were young. We were afraid. But we were unified and determined. When we stood undaunted in silence for 30 minutes, the world trembled. 

We confronted the apartheid regime and boldly said, ‘Strijdom, Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo uza kufa!" ("You strike a woman, you strike a rock, you will be crushed!"). Marking 50 years since the 1976 Soweto uprising, De Bruyn warned that youth unemployment remained "stubbornly high." 

Participants march during National Women’s Day commemorations in South Africa. 9 Aug 2026. (GCIS)

She told the crowd: "All of you are still the rock. You are still resilient. Despite the failures of our leadership, in the weight of these struggles, you continue to hold our families and communities together. Your courage is the shining hope and the light that keeps this country moving forward." She called for a new march: "Let us march forward once more, not against pass laws, but this time against crime and insecurity, poverty, corruption, unemployment, homelessness, violence and the many, many ills that restrict your future, your safety, your freedom and your prosperity."

De Bruyn also expressed solidarity with Palestinians. "I would be remiss if I did not express solidarity with the women and children in Palestine who are being subjected to genocide and apartheid," she stated. She quoted Nelson Mandela: "Our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians." De Bruyn ended by appealing to the public to submit the names of any surviving women who participated in the 1956 march to the Albert Luthuli Foundation. This was so they could be formally honoured.