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throughout the era of colonialism and apartheid in our country.
Generation after generation they continued to rally around their
clarion call of “wathintabafazi wathintimbokodo uzakufa” (now you
have touched the women, you have dislodged a boulder, you are
going to be killed).
The women engaged in different kinds of battles during the negotiations
process. They fought for their right to be included in the
negotiations and had to fight to ensure that the new Constitution
integrated gender concerns. Under the Women’s National Coalition
they adopted the Women’s Charter that documented the women’s
needs, aspirations that had to be integrated into the new policies
of a free, non-sexist, non-racial and democratic South Africa.
Currently women still continue, albeit under a different climate, to
engage in a protracted struggle for their emancipation. The women’s
movement is focusing on both the practical and strategic
gender needs. Strong organisations have emerged fighting,
amongst others, the scourge of violence against women and many
other ills that are inherited from the apartheid era as well as those
that are part of the patriarchal system. South African women like
struggling women the world over, are the product and epitome of
the struggle itself. They are still in the forefront of the struggle,
confirming the Sotho saying that “ …. a woman holds the knife at
its sharp end.”
Conclusion
16
The overlapping systems of oppression, discussed above, continue
to impact on post-apartheid South Africa just as racism continues
to create the “two nations” within one South Africa. It is important
for people, societies and nations to understand the gender dynamics
of racism. The rapidly changing global economy has also created
new barriers to social and economic equality especially for African
women. Therefore the struggle against racism should integrate the
struggle to eradicate gender oppression.
Thenjiwe Mtintso is a South African