National Women's League Conference

The launch of the Women's League inside the country after a long period of banning, was an historic occasion for women struggling to free themselves from political and gender oppression in South Africa. The national conference was the first one to be held inside the country since the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC). The Conference held on the 25 April to 28 April, in the small town of Kimberley saw the gathering of women from all over South Africa, as well as a large international contingency. Kimberley was chosen as the venue for the conference for political reasons during the fifties this area was an ANC stronghold and the first ANC secretary Sol Plaatjies came from this area. Despite the media publicity around the conference focussing essentially on the elections and the struggle for the presidency many more crucial tasks were vigorously dealt with at conference. The main tasks of the conference was to do a balance sheet of the Women's League ie to review its problems and come up with possible solutions. It had to also come up with a structure which would facilitate the involvement of all women. Lastly, the conference had to formulate a programme of action for the organisation. Several opening addresses were delivered on the first day of the conference which captured some of the issues which were to be debated during the conference. Albertina Sisulu in her address stressed that it was not sufficient to just pass resolutions on women's emancipation but the most important task facing women at the conference was to put these resolutions into practice. Gertrude Shope then contextualised the period in which the conference was taking place; where significant developments were unfolding with regard to negotiations. She stated that the tasks facing the ANC during negotiations is to remove all obstacles in the way of coming up with a new constitution for South Africa. Alfred Nzo read out the statement of the President of the ANC, Comrade Oliver R. Tambo. The key sentiment of the statement was that any liberation in South Africa which does not result in the emancipation of women will not be a proper liberation of the country and its people. Futhermore, it stated that the principal task of the Women's League is to organise women into the struggle The national conference was the first one to be held inside the country since the unbanning of the African National Congress

Gender equality · League · National Unity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Studies · Law · Legal Issues in South Africa