SA to build monuments honouring women

PRETORIA: The government is to build national monuments in honour of great South African women, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa said yesterday. He made the announcement before Women’s Day which is celebrated on August 9.

Launching the Women’s Month commemoration programme at the Union Buildings, Mthethwa said: “August 9 should not just be a day we commemorate and then forget about it. That is why we have plans to build a Heroes’ Acre, a national monument, to trace the country’s liberation through women.”

Women’s roles in the fight against apartheid were not narrated well, he said.

“The Struggle by women starts as far back as 1913. The defiance campaign did not start when Helen Joseph, Sophie de Bruyn and others marched to the Union Buildings. The women who took part in the defiance campaign have faces and names. It is time we honour them. It is time we know them like we know other leaders.”

Mthethwa said the Department of Arts and Culture was finalising plans for the monument that will most likely be erected in the capital. “It only makes sense that the monument be in the centre of power – which is in Pretoria,” he said.

Mthethwa said construction of the R168 million Sarah Baartman Centre for Remem- brance at Hankey in the Eastern Cape had already started.

The centre is being built adjacent to the grave where Baartman was reburied on Women’s Day in 2002.

Mthethwa said it was impossible to share the South African story while ignoring the role of women.

Minister of Women Susan Shabangu said this year’s commemorations were about celebrating the 60th anniversary of the signing of the women’s charter.