Sunday, August 22, 2010

March leaders lauded


HEROINES LIVE ON: Charlotte Maxeke’s tomb is unveiled as a national heritage site. Picture by Sibusiso Msibi

Former ANC Women’s League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela says it’s a shame that struggle fighters of the calibre of Lillian Ngoyi are only now being recognised.

Madikizela-Mandela was speaking at an event held to honour struggle icons Charlotte Maxeke, Lillian Ngoyi and Helen Joseph in Kliptown’s Freedom Square, Soweto, on Friday.

At the event the graves of the three were finally declared heritage sites – 54 years after they led a march of thousands of women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against the pass system in 1956.

Also at the event, South African Heritage Resource Agency CEO Sibongile van Damme said: “This not only seeks to advance the role of women in politics as that of the anti-pass campaigns, but to align them into mainstream politics and highlight their contributions.”

In 1901 Charlotte Maxeke became the first black South African woman to obtain a university degree (at Wilberforce University, Ohio, US).

Lillian Ngoyi and Helen Joseph’s lives were intertwined and they are both buried in the same grave at the Avalon Cemetery.

While Joseph and Maxeke have had hospitals named after them, Ngoyi has remained largely unrecognised until now.


Friday, August 20, 2010

Graves of struggle heroines declared heritage sites

Graves of struggle heroines declared heritage sites
Date: 20 Aug 2010
Soweto - The graves of struggle heroines Charlotte Maxeke, Helen Joseph and Lillian Ngoyi were declared heritage sites in Soweto on Friday.

According to the Department of Arts and Culture, the declaration of the graves into heritage sites kick-starts a five-year project aimed at identifying sites of women who have made a cultural contribution in different spheres of the liberation struggle including the arts, business, politics and armed combat.

The graves of the three women are situated in Avalon in Chiaweo and Nancefield respectively.
Joseph passed away on 25 December 1992 in Johannesburg. Dr. Maxeke passed away on 16 October 1939 and was regarded as everyone's friend and no one's enemy.

Lillian Masediba Ngoyi was born in Pretoria in 1911 to a family of six children, and obtained her primary schooling in Kilnerton. She later enrolled for a nurses training course, but she eventually took up work as a machinist in a clothing factory where she worked from 1945 to 1956.

Ngoyi, along with Joseph, led the women's anti-pass march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in 1956, one of the largest demonstrations staged in South African history.

Speaking at the unveiling of the graves, Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwana described the three women as brave stalwarts who stood firm for democracy.

"We are going to continue honouring all the women who played a significant role during the struggle," the minister said.

The minister said they will be working with women leaders in identifying all those who played a significant role during the struggle so they too can be honoured.

"We will be honouring all the women who went to jail for our freedom. They were willing to sacrifice their lives for our freedom," the minister said.

She said discussions to honour other women who have contributed to the struggle have started and called on young people to defend the country's hard-earned democracy.

"Young people should play a role in fighting the scourge of poverty that we are experiencing in our country," she said.

According to section 3 (2) of the National Heritage Resources Act no 25 of 1999, graves and burial grounds form part of the national estate that has a significance for present communities and future generations.

"The declaration of the graves of the three women will go a long way in ensuring that our heritage resources are conserved and managed," said Sibongile Van Damme, Chief Executive Officer of the South African Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA). - BuaNews

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Baboon Point gets heritage reprieve


By John Yeld Environment and Science Writer

The Western Cape's first proclaimed heritage site at Baboon Point in Elands Bay cannot be developed, a tribunal appointed to hear an appeal by a would-be developer has decided.

This decision, made in June, was confirmed last week by provincial Cultural Affairs, Sport and Recreation MEC Sakkie Jenner.

The heritage site, the first of its kind in the country, is considered to be one of the most important heritage conservation areas in Africa as it contains a unique, unbroken record of more than 100 000 years of human habitation.

But part of this rocky promontory at the southern end of the West Coast fishing village is privately owned, and an application for a proposed residential development there was submitted several years ago by Midnight Storm.