About the Bertha Gxowa Foundation

Programme Director, MEC Nandi Mayathula Khoza,
The Gxowa and Mashaba families,
Religious Leaders,
Leaders of the Bertha Gxowa Foundation,
Dr Gwen Ramokgopa and Mr Maurice Radebe,
Izithwalandwe/Diaparankoe Mme Ruth Mompati and Aunt Sophie De Bruyn,
Our host the Executive Mayor of Ekurhuleni, Comrade Mondli Gungubele,
Deputy Ministers Elizabeth Thabethe and Mzwandile Masina,
MEC Molebatsi Bopape,
MEC Faith Mazibuko,
MEC Pammy Majodina,
The Leadership of the ANC, ANC Veterans Leagues, ANC Women’s League and ANC Youth League,
Our elders – Mama Zikalala and Mama Brigalia Bham,
The leadership of the ANC led Alliance,
All political parties present,
MMCs and Councillors,
Comrades and friends,
The people of Gauteng.

Liberation heritage as a key element of our programme for radical transformation, modernisation and reindustrialisation of Gauteng province. I don’t often my MECs in public meetings – because it’s like thanking a fish for swimming. More monuments and heritage sites will be unveiled across our province. There are many unsung heroes and heroines we must still honour – Black and White, Coloured and Indian.

The children of Mama Bertha Gxowa, I know that our Mother is smiling in heaven. The ANCWL members, I know that Mama is very proud to see you today in your green blouse. Mama is smiling in heaven when sees the AME Church in action. I know that Mama is smiling when he sees the work we are doing across Gauteng to win back the confidence of our people by addressing all their core concerns honestly as leaders who listen. Mama must be happy to see us working hard as an activist government.

We are gathered here this morning to honour our stalwart and one of the outstanding leaders of our people. Mam’ Bertha Gxowa was an exceptional freedom fighter who worked persistently and consistently with and lived among her people. Even during the many years of banning, she refused to be separated from her. She was a symbol of the resilience born by many Black women leaders who found their own unique ways to continue the fight against the evil system of apartheid even under the most difficult conditions.

On this day, we celebrate the life of Mam’ Bertha the trade  unionist,  an organiser par excellence, an effective campaigner, a fearless revolutionary, a dynamic and principled leader, and above all a steadfast mentor and school of leadership for many of leaders of our nation, our province and communities.

She taught us many things. How to organise and how to be organised as a leader. How to represent an organisation through presenting yourself as a dignified person. How to respect yourself by respecting others. How to work among the people and win their trust. How to build and support other leaders so that they can replace you and even do better than you. How to serve the people with integrity and humility. How to work in a community to make a difference in the lives of ordinary people, especially among women.

It is for this reason that i call her an institution and school of leadership. Among her many accolades Mam’ Bertha is a worthy recipient of one of our country’s highest honours, The Order of Luthuli in Silver, awarded to her for her excellent contribution to the Trade Union movement and the struggle against apartheid.

Mam’ Bertha belongs to that special generation of freedom fighters whose commitment and contribution to our struggle for liberation and the transformation of our country was both profane and profound. Most in that generation are no longer with us but some are here today.

Allow me to single out Dr Ruth Mompati and Aunt Sophie De Bruyn Williams. We thank them for their nurturing and enduring leadership. We thank them for their resilience and spirit of no surrender.

In this regard, I would like to quote the words of Aunt Sophia Williams-De Bruyn who once said:

“Mama Bertha, myself and other women did all those things we did without resources and got good results because we were sincere. We were dedicated and believed that what we did was for the future of South Africa.”

We must continue to draw guidance and inspiration from Mam’ Bertha, Mme Ruth and Aunt Sophie as we seek solutions to the challenges of our time. We will work with the foundation to support local development projects that focus on women, girls and training of township entrepreneurs.

Indeed we must emulate their revolutionary discipline, their integrity, their resilience and above all their ability to continue to raise and mentor new and younger leaders in a principled, firm and supportive way.  Our country and communities need young leaders who are principled and resilient. Mam’ Bertha never wavered on matters of principle.

This morning, we are here to declare the grave of Mam’ Bertha as a provincial heritage site and we unveiled her statue. We are embarking on this journey because we want to ensure that current and future generations know where we come from as a nation.

This journey will also allow us to permanently turn our backs away from our unhappy past of exclusion and domination of one by another. It will allow us to heal the wounds of our past and it will allow us to declare, once more, as did the founding father of our nation Tata Nelson Mandela that:

“Never, never and never again, shall it be that this beautiful land of ours will again experience the oppression of one by another”

By declaring Mam’ Bertha’s grave a heritage site and unveiling her statute, we have ensured that her life and times will remain forever engraved in our nation’s collective memory. We have immortalised her memory. We have made it possible for her proud legacy to be preserved for current and future generations.

We have also taken a major step in discharging our obligation to preserve and promote the liberation heritage of our province; ensuring that it becomes part and parcel of our nation’s rich cultural heritage.

Mam’ Bertha’s grave site and her statue are a constant reminder and a fitting tribute to the sacrifices she made for us to enjoy the freedom we are enjoying today. These monuments are our collective statement, as the people of Gauteng, that we will never forget what Mam’ Bertha and her generation of freedom fighters taught us and what they stood for.

The monuments are our public declaration that as a people we will forever cherish the contribution that women such as Mam’ Bertha made to our country and our province. Equally, these monuments are a reminder that our freedom was not free; that it is a product of immeasurable sacrifice by brave men and women of the calibre of Mam’ Bertha.

They are an acknowledgement that as South Africans we are a proud and resilient nation, because we stand on the shoulders of Imbokodo such as Mam’ Bertha Gxowa and many others.

Programme Director, as this generation, we owe it to Mam’ Bertha and her generation who fought tirelessly against injustice and stood firm in their determination to build a national democratic society; that is united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous, to deepen the gains of freedom and democracy.

During this year of our twentieth anniversary of freedom and democracy and beyond, we have a responsibility to ensure that the democratic gains are felt by all South Africans. To do this we must proceed with even greater determination to move our country and our province onto a qualitatively different development path; a path of radical social and economic transformation.

This path must be underpinned by a determination to take bold and decisive steps to accelerate the pace of social and economic transformation. This path must also be underpinned by a desire to do things better, more efficiently and on a larger scale; delivering maximum impact in the shortest time possible.

It is in line with this understanding that we in Gauteng are implementing our ten pillar programme of transformation, modernisation and industrialisation.

Programme Director, on this day as we celebrate the life of Mam’ Bertha, we are reminded that she was from a working class background. As a result of her working class origins she became conscious of her class position, hence in 1952, her first job was that of an administrator for the South African Garment Workers Union.

She became part of the worker’s struggles because she knew very well that; it is trough collective struggles that we can bring about the necessary changes in our society. It was no coincidence of history that Mam’ Bertha cut her teeth in the trade union movement, because Gauteng or the then Transvaal was an industrial hub of the Republic of South Africa.

Many of our people left their places of birth and came to this part of our country in search of work opportunities. Mam’ Bertha was born at the time of rapid industrial development in our Province and in particular in the Germiston area.

To date this part of our Province remains highly industrialised, and has become our manufacturing hub.

However over the past few years, we have seen a decline in the contribution of manufacturing to the Provincial Gross Domestic Product. Hence as this fifth democratic administration, we have a taken a conscious decision to reindustrialise the Gauteng City Region.

This we are doing among others to unleash the potential that exists in the manufacturing sector, especially here in Ekurhuleni.

We will therefore be investing heavily in the growth and development of the Ekurhuleni Aerotropolis aimed at ensuring that the manufacturing sector and its entire value chain grow and that we attract foreign direct investments.

In honour of Mam’ Bertha and many of her generation who build this part of our province, we will not fail in this endeavour!

As we embark on the reindustrialisation of Gauteng, we will also be revisiting parts of our history.

This will include ensuring that we tell the stories and record the memories, especially of those whose narrative was excluded in the past.

We know too well that whilst many of these factories were established by white people, they were however built and sustained by the sweat and blood of Africans and Black people in general.

Their stories, their experiences, their pain and their triumph over adversity must be recorded and included as part of our country’s new and inclusive narrative of where we come from.

As we undertake this important task we will draw from the experiences of our sister countries on the Continent and in the rest of the world.

Our ultimate goal is to ensure that we leave for future generations a heritage that will unite humanity and build a future society that does not fail to recognize the contribution of various players in its history.

We are also unwavering in our determination to, over the next fifteen years, transform and revitalise our economy with a view to bringing more Africans and Black people into the economic mainstream.

This will include revitalising township economies. It will also include transforming apartheid spatial planning patterns by establishing new post- apartheid cities that promote social and economic inclusion.

Programme Director, Mam’ Bertha, was part of the generation that ensured that the demands of women are included in the Freedom Charter, adopted in 1955.

They did so because they understood that the struggle for women’s emancipation in South Africa was linked to the struggle for national liberation; the struggle to realise the demands of the Freedom Charter.

When women established organisations like the ANC Women’s League and the Federation of South African Women in the 1950s and began to strongly protest against the apartheid state’s policies, their actions impacted the struggles of the 1980s and subsequent years in a variety of ways.

The women who led such struggles included, among others, Dora Tamana, Lillian Ngoyi, Idah Mtwana, Frances Baard, Helen Joseph, Fatima Meer, Albertina Sisulu, Ray Alexander and MamBertha Gxowa.

In honour of these pioneering women of our country let us intensify our offensive on gender based violence and discrimination.

Let those who abuse women and children have no place to hide in our communities. Let us expose and isolate them and let them face the full might of the law.

This we must do not only now as we mark sixteen days of activism for no violence against women and children, but in our everyday lives. Let us continue to make Gauteng a safer place for our women and children.

As I conclude, I wish to leave you with words from a poem titled: I dream of cloisters of marble, by the Cuban national hero, freedom fighter and poet; Jose Marti.
In this poem Marti dreams of a world where the sculptures of the fallen heroes (and heroines) of the Cuban revolution come alive.

The poem goes as follows:

“I dream of cloisters of marble where in silence divine Heroes are upright sleeping.
I speak to them at night
At night by the light of soul!” Marti continues to write;
“Then the eyes of stone are open, I see moving lips of stone, Beards of stone are trembling,
They grip a sword of stone and cry” He concludes the poem by saying:

“The stone resounds,
The white hands reach down to touch their belt, And then from high on the pedestal,
The men of marble leap down!”

We too long for a world where the sculptures of our fallen heroes and heroines will continue to come alive.

From high on the pedestal may the spirit of Mam’ Bertha continue to leap down! Long live the spirit of Mam’ Bertha!

Thank you!

source:  SA Government