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The SACP takes this opportunity to salute millions of women of our country and use this day to pay tribute to women and the role they have played in the struggle for national liberation, reconstruction and transformation of our country.

We remember the heroic deeds of women like Charlote Maxeke, Josie Mpama, Lilian Ngoyi, Dora Tamana, Ruth First, Sonia Bunting, Hilda Bernstien, Bibi Dawood, Lizzy Abrahams, Ray Alexander, Esther Barsel, Ncumisa Kondlo and many more who dedicated their work in the struggle for national liberation and Socialism in South Africa.

We remember Dorothy Nyembe, Annie Silinga and Florence Matomela who all led and participated in the defiance campaign.

We salute the generation of Frances Baard and Sonia Bunting who played an active role in the real Congress of the People in Kilptown in 1955.

These women and many others who followed them dedicated their lives to the freedom of our country and of women in particular. They understood the interrelated nature of class, racial and gender oppression. The nature of the triple oppression that women bore has placed on us a heavy task to radically transform the situation of women for the better in society.

For years women played an unrecognised role to sustain capitalism in South Africa. Today they are the most affected by the crisis of capitalism. Women are heavily trapped in cycles of teething poverty and deprivation which are a direct outcome of the capitalist system we have continued to reproduce in our country. The propertied classes have tried all maneuvers to co-opt women into their accumulation patterns through narrow BEE at the expense of the majority of women.

We welcome the many advances made by our government to address the conditions of the poor especially women, through amongst other things expanded educational opportunities, social grants, rollout of electricity, water connections and so on. However women remain mostly affected by soaring prices of food, fuel, electricity, education and many other essentials. The commodification of health services affects women the most and it is in this regard that we need to strengthen our campaign for an efficient and accessible public health system including the speedy introduction of the NHI.

Women and young girls continue to be victims of the most vitriolic acts of crime like rape and murder. Crime is an integral part of the social ills of a capitalist system as the system is not people centered but profit driven. During this women's day we must also remember the brutal murder of Thifhelimbilu Mashau and her two daughters, as well as thousands of women and children who have suffered at the hands of violence and crime directed at women and children.

We need an intensification of mass mobilisation to push for a faster implementation of the five priority areas of government. Accelerated implementation of these priorities will go a long way in addressing the conditions of the overwhelming majority of the women in our country. The SACP further commits to intensify its campaign against corruption as theft of resources through corruption affects working class women the most. We use this August 9 to call upon all women of our country to join us in our effort to intensify the implementation of these five priorities as well as we strengthen the campaign against corruption.

The SACP further calls for the intensification of mobilisation of women from all sectors and races under the banner of the Progressive Woman's Movement for a decisive break in addressing the ‘Woman's Question' in our country. The struggle against patriarchy will not be successful unless we have a strong woman's movement rooted amongst working class women.