National Women’s Day August 9th

Commemorating the national march of women on this day in 1956 to petition against the pass laws that required South Africans defined as “black” by The Population Registration Act to carry a ‘”pass,” an internal passport that severely restricted their movement. Each “pass” designated specific urban/metropolitan areas in which the bearer was authorized to live, work and travel. Within such areas, black South Africans were required to carry and produce their “pass” at all times, and were arrested if without one. As such, it served to maintain population segregation, control urbanisation, and manage migrant labour during the apartheid era.