On the 9th of August, every year, we celebrate the strength and resilience of our women in South Africa, an honour that emanated from an event that will forever be remembered by all South Africans. It was an act of bravery at a time that not only women but all black people in South Africa suffered under the apartheid regime, and this made the defiance of the women on that day in 1956 all the more heroic.
On that day, the women of South Africa marched to the Union Buildings with a petition against legislation that required African persons to carry the ‘pass’. This was an identification document that severely restricted the movement of all Black South African citizens under the draconian apartheid legal system.
During the peaceful protest the women sang a protest song composed specifically for the event called ‘Wathint’Abafazi Wathint’imbokodo!’ This meant ‘now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock!’
South Africa’s strong women in law
Little did they know what an accurate depiction of the great South African women of the future that song portrayed. As a legal firm, we would like to point to and honour some of the women in law who paved the way for others to continue that proud legacy.
South Africa’s first Female Attorney had already been appointed long before that memorable day. She was Irene Antoinette Geffen who was admitted to the bar in the ‘Transvaal’ in 1923. It was to be many years later however that the first female judge was to be appointed.
In 1991, Leonora van den Heever – a former judge of the High Court of South Africa, became the first female judge to be appointed permanently to the appellate division of the South African Supreme Court in Bloemfontein where she served until she retired at age 70.
Desiree Finca was the first Black female lawyer in South Africa appointed in 1967 and Yvonne Mokgoro and Kate O’Regan the first females appointed as Justices of the Constitutional Court of South Africa in 1994. Mokgoro is also known as the first Black female judge in South Africa.
These were just the pioneers of what has now become a nation that boasts many highly capable women in law, not only in high positions but also in those vital positions of clerks of the court, legal secretaries and even the women who maintain the law on the ground, the female members of the S.A.P, to name just a few.
We salute and serve you
Glenn Rooseboom Attorneys notaries and conveyancers salute not only our great women in law but all South African women that serve their families and their country to make us proud.
We have many female clients and colleagues in the legal profession and we are here to serve you, particularly wherever your rights need to be protected in business, when embarking on a marriage, buying a new home, or when making a will to preserve that great legacy for your families.
Talk to us – we look forward to being of service to you. Stay strong and stay proud to be women!
