GOOD Statement by Patricia de Lille,
GOOD Leader & Minister of Tourism
09 August 2025
This Women’s Day, we honour the courage, resilience, and leadership of women in South Africa. We celebrate the countless women in our communities who hold families and neighbourhoods together – as caregivers, breadwinners, community leaders and changemakers – often without recognition or reward. To you, we say: “Siyabonga, Mbo-Kodo.”
We live in a time where we’ve seen women rise to the highest offices in the land. Chief Justice Mandisa Maya, South Africa’s first female Chief Justice, is one such beacon of progress. And yet, despite these milestones, I remain the only woman leader of a political party represented in Parliament.
Women continue to bear the brunt of South Africa’s social and economic crises. The face of poverty is overwhelmingly female. And our country remains gripped by the scourge of gender-based violence. To every woman who has survived violence, I say: Don’t shut up. Speak up. Your voice matters.
Each year on 9 August, we commemorate the historic 1956 Women’s March, when more than 20,000 South African women took to the streets of Pretoria to protest apartheid’s pass laws. Their defiance was an act of collective strength against an unjust system, a reminder that women have always been on the frontlines of the struggle for freedom and dignity.
But this year, the GOOD Party asks us to broaden our gaze beyond our borders. While we celebrate the victories and contributions of South African women, we cannot ignore the suffering of women facing unspeakable atrocities in Gaza.
According to the United Nations, more than 28,000 women and girls have been killed in Gaza since October. Over a million women and girls are facing starvation.
This Women’s Day, let us celebrate the strength of South African women by standing in solidarity with women globally, especially those whose lives and rights are under threat. Let us honour the spirit of 1956 by continuing to speak out against injustice, in South Africa and worldwide.
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