Women Politicians In South Africa

"this real crime against humanity."

"The impending destruction of humanity and our planet, presented by climate scientists, does not penetrate the thick wall of denial and inaction, with devastating consequences for people who are poor, especially women"

"When I wrote Love and Courage, the Story of Insubordination, I was not just telling the story of some isolated individual operating in a bubble. It was really about my learning about the power of love and how to connect, to draw courage and be insubordinate, to injustice and to systems of injustice"

"My father used to say the person who writes the story shapes our consciousness. So it’s not just about whose stories get told, but it’s about if you are writing the story yourself, if it’s your story, if it’s your experience, the power of that is enormous. Because our stories have been written for us and they’ve been re-written. And many times we’ve been written out."

"When we were fighting against apartheid, we recognised it wasn’t just a racist state. It was a racist, capitalist and patriarchal state. And we have to understand that. So how do we actually fight against that? How do we change that"

"It’s really people who exploit the earth and humanity with fairly little consequence and then set themselves up as the people with the solution or who will fund the solutions"

"Power Systems work to fragment us. They fragment us as individual beings. And they set up these hierarchies – the hierarchy of the body, mind, heart, spirit; hierarchies of race, colour, and gender, and they set up these divisions within and between us"

"That’s how Power Systems work. They set up divisions between us. One of the most powerful things is reclaiming that connection"

"Share [your] personal intergenerational stories of [your] forebears who had defied race, culture, gender and power"

"In our country, as in all others, rape and sexual assault have been interwoven into wars of patriarchal conquest and colonisation, genocide, slavery, apartheid and capitalism. Religious texts justify violence against women and children"

"God is male – male is god’ is deeply embedded in the human psyche. Those taught to be subordinate are female and those taught to expect subordination are male. The world order mirrors apartheid and has deepened inequality and poverty. Economic, military and religious fundamentalism have increased vulnerability to misogyny, and rape and sexual abuse will affect an estimated one billion women and girls over their lifetimes"

"This is where depression regularly ends in suicide and there is no place to run for women, girls, transgendered and gender non-conforming people"

"I want to incite insubordination against this in each of us. Like you, I have felt the fear and hate of subordination land on my skin, course through my blood, unsettle my nerves… its paralysis, impotent rage and helplessness"

"There is wisdom in the everyday beauty of fragile complex beings grappling with contradiction"

"We can reclaim ourselves by recognising that love is intrinsic to our being. From it we can invoke the courage to dance with our fear"

"Some people said that apartheid disappeared after removing the signs that said ‘non-Europeans’ … but the structural institutional roots of it remained. When we begin to get insubordinate, we begin to get to the roots of things. Oppressive systems thrive in our subordination"

"It’s about harnessing the power we all have within us and begin to practise moving that power. It’s about seeing the dignity in others and [seeing how] the quality of what we create together becomes substantially different"

"Without seeing the dignity in those who bear the brunt of gender-based violence, the result will be a narrow focus on the criminal justice system and not the root causes of the problem, and how we have to address this to change the reality of our own country and our world"

"From love we can invoke the courage to dance with our fear. Inherent dignity is our individual and collective birth right that underpins substantive rights. When we forget our birth right, as we often do, we can look in the mirror of ourselves, of each other, or let the rising sun remind us of the radiance we were born with"

"It is an individual choice you make in your life to make a difference. It is an individual choice to understand that my neighbour is not as privileged as I am. Extend your heart to those around you, and that is the democracy you should protect.It is an individual choice you make in your life to make a difference. It is an individual choice to understand that my neighbour is not as privileged as I am. Extend your heart to those around you, and that is the democracy you should protect."

"She suffered so much bringing up her two girls when @NelsonMandela was in prison: beaten up banned banished to remote Brandfort harassed imprisoned. Fearless defiant in face apartheid state. Remember that when correctly criticising her rogue later life"

"She was a defining symbol of the struggle against apartheid. She refused to be bowed by the imprisonment of her husband, the perpetual harassment of her family by security forces, detentions, bannings and banishment. Her courageous defiance was deeply inspirational to me, and to generations of activists."

"He (Nelson Mandela) walked like a man who does not take the earth for granted. He took one step after another with obvious care and delight. Right next to him, Winnie Mandela stayed close, attuned and alert, and radiant."

"She is an admirable woman. Her husband, one of the leaders of the African National Congress, is imprisoned for life on our Devil's Island. As for Winnie, she never gave up the struggle. She is put in and out of prison constantly. For example, she was arrested after the events of Soweto because she had organized, in collaboration with other blacks, an association of parents that seemed, at first, insignificant but quickly became extremely important. This organization strove to eliminate the estrangement that had developed between the young blacks, who had revolted, and the older generation. This is one of the very serious problems facing the black community today, this gap between the generations. The young accuse their parents: "You allowed yourselves to become discouraged; you were afraid to take risks. Us, we are not afraid. We demonstrate; we confront the guns; we want to fight." And they radicalized their elders in an extraordinary manner. By speaking out in favor of the action of the young people, Winnie Mandela, thanks to her eminence, certainly influenced a part of the black community that until then had been traumatized by the acts of the young. That is the reason she was judged and condemned. When she is not in prison, she is placed under house arrest and thus prevented from moving about or working. For a while after the rebellions, the government permitted her to live in Soweto in her house but basically forbade her to leave or to receive anyone there. Then they did something even more horrible; they exiled her to a small village deep in the countryside. It is there that she is living at present. And the only news published about her appears when those who brave the interdiction visit her and get caught."

"I wish to acknowledge Mama Winnie Madikizela Mandela for her efforts and steadfastness for standing with Tata Mandela before and during Tata's imprisonment and for being in the forefront of ANC's struggle for liberation."

"It has never been about me, the person. I’ve never regarded myself as an individual, I’m just part of this whole liberation machine … I always talk about us - as we - because I’m just part of the whole collective."

"I’m not sorry. I will never be sorry. I would do everything I did again if I had to. Everything."

"If you are to free yourselves you must break the chains of oppression yourselves. Only then can we express our dignity, only when we have liberated ourselves can we co-operate with other groups. Any acceptance of humiliation, indignity or insult is acceptance of inferiority."

"To those who oppose us, we say, Strike the woman, and you strike the rock."

"I decided I will fight them to the last drop of my blood, and I will show them that women are going to bring about change in South Africa, and we did."

"I'm inspired by what's not been done before - bringing together fashion and original art."

"Authenticity goes a long way, so keep being yourself and your art will speak for itself."

"The glass is either full or half empty. It’s all about your perception of life."

"Impossible is nothing."

"Nothing great ever happens in your comfort zone."

"Walking away from an abusive relationship is a sign of strength. It shows the world that you know your worth and your rights and that you will not allow anyone to walk all over you."

"Today, for the first time in the history of civilisation, more people are living in cities than in rural areas. The kind of person that is willing to leave everything behind and move to the city is a special kind of person and that's what helps make cities special.*"

"When people abuse you, you must walk away. When you have to work with people throwing dirt at you on a daily basis, you walk away."

"Mugabe has destroyed that country while South Africa has stood by and done nothing. The way Mugabe was feted at the inauguration last month was an embarrassing disgrace. But it served well to illustrate very clearly Mbeki's point of view."

"I had hoped for something much better... [T]he poor in this country have not benefited at all from the ANC. This government spends "like a drunken sailor". Instead of investing in projects to give people jobs, they spend millions buying weapons and private jets, and sending gifts to Haiti."

"Go and see for yourself."

"[T]he prime minister has been trying to bully me for twenty-eight years and he has not succeeded yet. I am not frightened of you. I never have been and I never will be. I think nothing of you."

"Every Nationalist MP should go to at least one funeral for unrest victims heavily disguised as human beings, instead of sitting on their green benches in parliament, insulated like fish in an aquarium."

"Are you going to put me under house arrest or put me on Robben Island?"

"I do not know why we equate—and with such examples before us—a white skin with civilisation."

"It is not my questions that embarrass South Africa; it is your answers."

"You say your people brought the Bible over the mountains and ask what mine did. They wrote it, my dear."

"In South Africa, Joe Slovo, Ruth First, Albie Sachs, Nadine Gordimer, Abie Nathan, and Helen Suzman are only among the most famous of the many Jews who joined the fight to bring down apartheid."

"For all my criticisms of the current system, it doesn't mean that I would like to return to the old one. I don't think we will ever go the way of Zimbabwe, but people are entitled to be concerned. I am hopeful about any future for whites in this country - but not entirely optimistic."

"Don't think for a moment that Mbeki is not anti-white - he is, most definitely. His speeches all have anti-white themes and he continues to convince everyone that there are two types of South African - the poor black and the rich white."