Sophie De Bruyn laments GBV and challenges facing women today

Sophie De Bruyn, one of the last surviving leaders of the 1956 Women’s march, has lamented that various challenges face women today including the scourge of Gender Based Violence and Femicide.

In an exclusive interview with SABC ahead of Women’s day on Sunday, De Bruyn shared her first-hand account of organising the protests, delivering the memorandum, and the enduring legacy of the women who changed South African history.

EXCLUSIVE | Former South African anti-apartheid activist Sophia Williams-De Bruyn says: “So I say to women that carry on, don’t give up; carry on with protests. It may seem as if it is not working, but it is a weapon, and they will in the end succumb to that weapon.” pic.twitter.com/vI2Kc0YvPh

— SABC News (@SABCNews) August 8, 2026

De Bruyn says despite the rise in challenges women go through, she comforted to know that the fighting spirit continues years later.

“In our days, we had one enemy, the enemy of oppression that we took headlong. Today, our women, our young people have got many enemies. The enemy, number one, of gender-based violence, the enemy of poverty, of corruption, of crime, of homelessness, of so many things that is a scourge for our women. But what is encouraging for me is to see that women haven’t sat still, that women have taken challenges and are ready to sacrifice.”