'ANC leadership is not taking advice when it is given to them' - 1956 march leader Sophia de Bruyn

Anti-apartheid struggle veteran Sophia de Bruyn is encouraging young women today to form an umbrella organisation to unite all women’s movements, like the Federation of South African Women did during apartheid. de Bruyn, the last surviving leader of the historic 1956 Women’s March, was speaking on the sidelines of a commemorative event hosted by the Ahmed Kathrada and Sophie and Henry de Bruyn Legacy Foundation. 

Later when she was closing out the event at the grave of struggle giant Albertina Sisulu, de Bruyn conceded that the current societal struggles facing women in South Africa would have the struggle icons turning in their graves. 

“This is not what they wanted for this beautiful country and for the future generations,” said de Bruyn. 

Speaking as a member of the ANC, de Bruyn said she was concerned with the current trajectory of the governing party. “It is a very difficult situation especially when you are ANC yourself and you know the mistakes that we’ve made. Our leadership is not taking advice when it is given to them. There is a move to renew but what is this renewal I don’t know. I haven’t seen a blueprint of this renewal. I don’t see the unity [in the ANC]. There is still a sense of talking past one another,” said de Bruyn. 

As a veteran of the struggle against apartheid and leader in the fight for women, de Bruyn conceded that she is hugely disappointed in the current state of the nation. “Sometimes I cry, I swallow a lump in my throat. When we are together with other veterans we bemoan what is going on and we ask, is this what our martyrs, our heroines, our icons, is this what they suffered and died for? Is what is happening today a sign of things to come?

Expanding on her motivation for a women's movement, De Bruyn said: “The most important thing for our young people to do is to form one big gigantic organisation. You know in the 1950s there were all these different organisations but they were all under the umbrella of the Federation of South African Women. We managed to bring all those formations together under that umbrella and we succeeded without any resources. If women's organisations can speak with one voice and be unified, that is how I think we can overcome a lot of the ills that have beset our country." 

Young women activists together with de Bruyn visited the graves of the other three organisers of the Women’s March, namely Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Rahima Moosa. Flowers were laid at the grave of Ngoyi and Joseph who are buried together at Avalon cemetery. As she stood alongside the graves of her two friends de Bruyn addressed a group of young women activists. She encouraged the next generation to get involved in pushing to make the country a better place for women. 

Anti-apartheid struggle veteran Sofie de Bruyn lays flowers at the joint gravesite of her friends and fellow activists Lilian Ngoyi and Helen Joseph at Avalon cemetery. (Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee)