Building resilient economies for all in our lifetime
12 August 2025 at 9:39 am
This Women’s Month, Life After Coal and its partners, Earthlife Africa, Center for Environmental Rights and groundWork joins the nation in commemorating the 69th anniversary of the 1956 Women’s March on the Union Buildings and the 30th anniversary of South Africa’s first official National Women’s Day.
On that decisive day in 1956, more than 20,000 women marched to the Union Buildings, boldly declaring: “Wathint’ Umfazi, Wathint’ Imbokodo!” (You strike a woman; you strike a rock!). They were resisting apartheid ‘Pass Laws’ previously imposed on African men and extended to African women that stripped indigenous peoples of their freedom, dignity, and rights. The historic women’s march led by Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn wasn’t just a protest, it was a promise: that women would not sit quietly while injustice reigned.
This year’s theme for national women’s day, “Building resilient economies for all,” calls on us to remember that economic justice is inseparable from environmental and social justice. As we reflect, we also recommit to ensuring that women are not only included in economic transformation but are leading it.
Life After Coal honours the women in South Africa’s energy heartlands, those living in poor conditions under the shadow of coal-fired power stations that darken our skies and poison our air and water. These women are not just daily survivors of the negative health impacts of pollution, they are frontline care givers to and defenders of their communities, fighting for a just energy transition away from fossil fuels.
They are the ones who have stood up in courtrooms, public hearings and communities; whose voices echo in the Deadly Air case. They have spoken bravely about the harsh realities of their living conditions where they bare the brunt of unpaid care for children coughing through the night, missing school, suffering from asthma and other respiratory diseases, drinking polluted water that is not safe for human consumption under skies that no longer show the stars.
Life After Coal and its partners, celebrate women’s courage, resilience, and unwavering commitment to a future where clean air, healthy communities, and equitable economies are not dreams, but rights that are realised in our lifetime.
To the women living in fenceline communities building hope in the dust and ashes of coal, we see you, we salute you, we walk with you. Wathint’ umfazi, wathint’ imbokodo! Amandla, awethu!
ENDS