By Avuye Snam and Siyanda Zinyanga
Makana Municipality, led by organiser Noulthando Santi, hosted a Women’s Month celebration at Joza Sports Centre on Monday, 18 August 2025, to honour South African women.
The event brought together community members, schools and leaders under the theme Masiyeke ukucinezelana (Let us stop oppressing one another).
From outside before the event started, vibrant singing and dancing to traditional Xhosa Ukombela filled the atmosphere as people waited to enter the venue. However, the long wait left some women unhappy. “Ndiva kamnandi, qha ndilambile,” said Vuyiswa Mzizi. Many had waited for hours, leaving elderly women standing in the sun for some time.
Once inside the venue, the event opened with celebrations through music items from the women and the Nombulelo Senior Secondary School choir.
The programme opened with a warm welcome from Councillor Andile Hoyi, who invoked the song lyrics of “Oomama beAfrika thandazela iAfrika”; these powerful words, he reminded attendees, date back to how women had the power to pray and things would change for the good, especially in Africa.
Powerful speeches of unity amongst the women were also shared.
“People are not free today, but this celebration looks at the day women fought for their struggles. This event helps women to gather and speak about struggles and successes that a woman may face,” said Ntombi Base.
“Women’s Month is about celebrating our mothers, showing them love and how they are important to us”, Likhona Sakata, a girl learner from Nombulelo Senior Secondary School.
The distinguished guest speaker, Rev. Linda Nomsindisi Snam-Dyani, said she was honoured to speak as a guest at this Women’s Month celebration. She reflected on the resilience and unity of the women of 1956. She highlighted how it is important as a woman to walk with God, and the practices that sustained families in the olden times, such as gardening for healthy food, income, nurturing creation and free therapy, strengthened the households and communities. “Let’s go back to our roots”, she emphasised.
Many women in the hall left feeling motivated. The courage of the legendary women, Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Albertina Sisulu, and Sophia Williams-De Bruyne, who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against the pass laws of women, their courage in standing together remains to inspire and lightens us today.
