70 Years On, Women Confront "Neo-Apartheid" Structures of Oppression and Exclusion

On Tuesday, 25 August 2026, the Wits School of Governance (WSG) at the University of the Witwatersrand and the Centre for Constructive Theology (CCT) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal co-hosted a webinar commemorating the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Women's March, under the theme "A new frontier: Women confronting neo-Apartheid structures of oppression and exclusion."

The webinar was conceptualised and moderated by Dr Thelela Ngcetane-Vika, an academic based at WSG. In her conceptualisation, she asserted her own ontological position:

“I locate myself within the genealogy of struggle that precedes and exceeds me. As a scholar of International Law, Governance and Gender, I inhabit an academic world whose epistemic foundations were not built with people like me in mind. International law, with its colonial inheritances, has historically spoken about Black women rather than with them, rendering us objects of protection, intervention, or discipline rather than subjects of knowledge and political agency. My work consciously disrupts this paradigm. I approach law not as a neutral instrument but as a contested terrain that must be decolonised, dislodged from its Euro-American centric moorings, and repurposed for emancipatory ends.”

The two-hour panel discussion brought together academics, faith leaders, a local government mayor and a youth activist around one central question: What does the legacy of the 1956 Women’s March call us to do as we confront neo-Apartheid structures of oppression and exclusion in 2026?

The webinar was therefore not simply an exercise in remembrance. It asked what history demands of South Africa today. The panellists not only helped us to understand what neo-apartheid structures of oppression and exclusion look like in the present day, but also explored pathways towards liberating women from restrictive social, economic and political systems.

Remembering the Heroines

The webinar was opened by Professor Themba Maseko, Head of the Wits School of Governance, who paid tribute to the courageous women of all races who marched to the Union Buildings in Tshwane on 9 August 1956, under the banner of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW). He reflected on the protest against repressive pass laws that limited women's mobility. He also acknowledged that while pass laws are a thing of the past, there are equally pressing and compounded issues facing women in society today. These include the triple challenges of gender inequality, a racialised economic system and a continued hierarchy in politics that places women as outliers despite laws seeking to promote women in positions of power.

The evening paid tribute to the four women who led the historic march: Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn.

Ngoyi, a trade unionist, became the first woman elected to the African National Congress National Executive Committee. Joseph was one of the leading voices behind the Women's Charter. Moosa devoted much of her life to struggles affecting workers and families, while Williams-De Bruyn, only 18 years old at the time of the march, remains the sole surviving leader of the four.

Their message to the apartheid state, captured in the enduring words Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo, remained an important point of reference throughout the discussion.

Healing as Infrastructure, Not Softness

Dr Donnette Green, a professor of public policy and emotional intelligence strategist based in New Jersey, USA, drew a connection between the 1956 Women's March and the Montgomery Bus Boycott led by the Civil Rights Movement, which took place in the United States during the same period. Although the struggles emerged in different contexts and across the Atlantic Ocean, she argued that both confronted systems sustained by exclusion, division and silence.

She captured the point in one of the evening's most memorable statements: "Exclusion is designed, and anything designed can be dismantled."

Green argued that while apartheid laws were formally dismantled, patterns of exclusion can survive long after the legislation that created them. Today, these patterns can be seen in who has access to economic opportunity, wealth, secure housing, technology, decision-making spaces and meaningful power.

Another important thread running through the discussion was the emotional cost of sustained struggle. Dr Green argued that healing should not be treated as something separate from activism. Women are often expected to carry families, communities, workplaces and social movements while being afforded very little space to recover from the emotional consequences of that responsibility.

A movement carried by exhausted and unhealed people, she suggested, eventually risks weakening, not because the cause is wrong, but because those carrying it have not been adequately supported. Healing, therefore, should not be viewed as softness or retreat. It is part of sustaining the work.

A Generational Reckoning

One of the strongest interventions of the evening came from Ms Prudence Mabasa, South African Youth Council NEC Deputy General Secretary, who described herself not merely as an activist but as an "actionist". She challenged the tendency to allow commemoration to become an end in itself.

For her generation, remembering the achievements of the women of 1956 remains important. Those women helped secure freedoms that later generations now exercise, including the right to vote, lead institutions, move freely and participate in public life. Yet Mabasa argued that these gains have to be weighed against the realities women still face.

She referred to findings indicating that only about 27% of South African women report feeling safe walking alone at night. Against such a background, she said, celebration cannot be separated from a serious examination of what remains unresolved.

Her concern was that annual commemorations can easily become repetitive if they are not followed by action. Young women, she argued, want to see activism translated into implementation. They want institutions to go beyond hashtags, campaigns and annual speeches, and to confront the causes of gender-based violence rather than merely reacting to its consequences. Her intervention placed a difficult but necessary question before the panel and audience: when does remembrance become implementation?

Land, Labour and the Rural Woman

Dr Phumzile Dandala, a health science scholar and community builder practitioner, grounded the conversation in the lived realities of rural women. She argued that no community can meaningfully develop unless women are fully involved in that development. Her contribution challenged narrow understandings of progress in which development is measured mainly through visible infrastructure, commercial projects or shopping centres while the everyday realities of women remain unchanged.

Councillor Zanele Koni, Honourable Mayor of Emalahleni Local Municipality, brought the discussion closer to the realities of governance. She identified economic exclusion, unemployment, unequal access to opportunity, digital exclusion and gender-based violence as some of the barriers that continue to shape women's lives, especially those living in rural areas.

For rural women, development must also mean access to land, livelihoods and economic opportunities. It must include fair labour practices and fair wages, particularly for workers such as domestic workers whose contribution to households and the wider economy is often undervalued.

Their interventions reminded the audience that women's experiences of exclusion are not uniform. Where a woman lives, the work she performs, the resources available to her and the opportunities she can access all influence how inequality is experienced.

Women's empowerment must therefore extend beyond boardrooms and political offices. It must also reach villages, farms, townships, informal settlements, homes and workplaces. The discussion therefore used "neo-apartheid" as a way of interrogating forms of structural inequality that remain deeply rooted even in a constitutional democracy.

Faith, Governance and Collective Action

Dr Nomathamsanqa "Thami" Siwisa, a human resources specialist and Methodist churchwoman, extended this thinking into institutional and faith spaces.

Her concern was that 9 August should not become a day of powerful statements followed by little follow-through during the rest of the year. In her closing remarks, she underscored the importance of revisiting Steve Biko’s ideology of Black Consciousness, which brought pride and dignity to Black people. She also proposed establishing a women's forum to continue monitoring policy commitments and practical action beyond the commemorative period.

Reverend Storia Seitisho, a feminist theologian, called on women and communities to mobilise, organise and inform one another, drawing inspiration from the discipline and collective organisation that made the 1956 march possible. The women who marched to the Union Buildings did not arrive there by chance. Their success was built through organising across communities, political formations and racial divisions.

Professor Simangaliso Kumalo, Director of the Centre for Constructive Theology, closed the webinar by reflecting on the complex role of the church in the history of women's struggles.

Faith institutions, he noted, have at times reinforced patriarchal systems. At the same time, churches have also provided spaces in which women organised, sustained communities, challenged injustice and built movements of resistance.

He proposed that the partnership between the Wits School of Governance and the Centre for Constructive Theology be taken further through a joint conference exploring the relationship between theology and governance. The proposal reflected a broader message emerging from the webinar: the challenges facing women cannot be left to the government alone. Universities, churches, communities, civil society organisations and public institutions all have a role to play.

Closing: A Fire That Must Be Followed, Not Tamed

The chat room was abuzz with comments and questions.That level of participation itself demonstrated the continuing relevance of the conversation.

Seventy years after the Women's March, South Africa is not being asked to reproduce the struggle of 1956. The country now has a constitutional framework that guarantees rights for which previous generations had to fight. The challenge is whether those rights are fully experienced in women's everyday lives. 

Dr Ngcetane-Vika closed the webinar with a charge to the audience:

"The fire of our foremothers continues to blaze, uncontainable, urgent and illuminating. Our task as this generation is not to tame it, but to follow its light with courage and clarity."

Those words captured the central message of the evening. The women of 1956 demonstrated what becomes possible when people refuse to accept exclusion as permanent. Seventy years later, honouring their legacy requires more than remembering their courage. It requires asking what remains unfinished, who remains excluded and what this generation is prepared to do about it.