At the eleventh hour, the National Women’s Day Commemoration set to take place in Khayelitsha today will now take place at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, according to the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, as a result of the ongoing taxi strike.
The strike is expected to end on Thursday, 9 August, with taxi operations resuming on Friday, 10 August. However, residents fear that it may continue for longer than anticipated.
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The decision to move the event was necessitated by the department as custodian of National Days in light of the several incidents of protest violence that have occurred over the last six days. Some of which occurred in Khayelitsha, which has been deemed a taxi strike hotspot and high security risk area.
The event is hosted by the national Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in partnership with the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities as the lead departments for Women’s Day.
The African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) in the Western Cape said it was disappointed that the event would not be hosted in Khayelitsha today, reports EWN.
‘An event that comes once a year and it came for the Western Cape women this time, and after all the organisation, nobody cares. JP Smith does not care.’
It’s blaming the City of Cape Town for sparking instability.
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Convenor of the ANC’s Women League for the Western Cape, Mampe Kotsi, said Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis was unfairly apportioning all the blame for the strike and the violence on the taxi industry.
‘They are the ones who should actually not move away from negotiations. They should be talking because the majority of the people of the Western Cape are affected.’
The ANCWL in the Western Cape said the taxi strike had meant that women had been unable to go to work and children had not gone to school.
Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Western Cape spokesperson on finance, economic opportunities and tourism told the Daily Maverick that as of Monday, 456 020 pupils and 17 449 staff were unable to get to school.
Kotsi added that women’s health had also been impacted by the taxi strike this week, with many of the city’s clinics being closed.
The National Women’s Day Commemoration event kicked off at 7am with a symbolic walk from Sammy Marks to the Union Building, while the formal programme and cultural performances follows at 9am today, including a keynote address by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The walk symbolises that of when 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings in protest against pass laws.
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Picture: Miguel Bruna / Unsplash