The last living leader of the historic 1956 Women’s March to the Union Buildings, Sophie de Bruyn, has urged President Jacob Zuma to tackle the problem of racism in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) this evening.
De Bruyn, alongside Rahima Moosa, Lillian Ngoyi and Albertina Sisulu, organised the march against the pass laws of the apartheid regime.
She says the issue of racial cohesion must be enforced and tackled at the highest level.
“Racism is not a thing that we should tolerate, nobody should tolerate racism and wherever it rears its ugly head we should always as the public and a united force, try and encourage everybody to be against it. I know from my time in the apartheid era, what is heart breaking is that in this 23 years that we are in government nothing seems to have changed you know.”
Meanwhile, Parliament says preparations are well underway, ahead of the SONA. Secretary to Parliament Gengezi Mgidlana says two rehearsals have been completed, and all the security checks have been put in place to ensure that the formalities of tonight run smoothly.
“We have been doing serious planning to detail around what should happen today we feel very comfortable around the plans that have been made, we feel very confident that we will be able to host a momentous occasion that everybody is looking forward too,” says Mgidlana.
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