Note to editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Leanne De Jager MPL.
The Premier Panyaza Lesufi-led government has once again shown that it is all talk and no action, failing to honour women during Women’s Month by operationalising the Women’s Living Heritage Monument at Sammy Marks Square. Completed and funded at more than R200 million, the monument has remained locked to the public since 2018, despite being built to celebrate and honour women’s contributions.
The Democratic Alliance calls on the Gauteng Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation (SACR) to give a clear, specific timeline for obtaining the outstanding fire compliance certificate and subsequently opening the monument to the public. We further insist that the department must commit to ensuring that, once the monument is open, its schedule prioritises exhibitions, recitals, and paid opportunities for women artists and performers from Gauteng.
The failure to open the monument was not a missed opportunity. It was a squandered one. This venue could have hosted exhibitions of women’s art, recitals celebrating women in music and performance, and platforms for women in the creative industry to showcase their work and earn an income from it. Instead, artists, performers and creative practitioners were shut out of a space built specifically to honour them, while government paid lip service to women’s empowerment from podiums elsewhere.
Premier Lesufi failed to intervene personally despite repeated calls from the DA, proving that his commitment, announced during his State of the Province Address, to honour the legacy of Mrs Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, the last surviving leader of the historic 1956 Women’s March to the Union Buildings, was nothing more than a sham.
Every month this monument remains shuttered is a month of lost jobs for caterers, technicians, curators, security staff, and performers who could have been employed around events held there. It is lost income for women artists denied a stage and a direct contradiction of the very commitments Gauteng’s leadership claims to champion.
The excuses have not changed in years. An outstanding fire compliance certificate does not explain nearly a decade of inaction. What was promised as a tribute to women has become a monument to broken promises and a slap in the face to the very women it was built to honour.
The DA remains the only party committed to preserving Gauteng’s heritage while tapping into its potential to deliver real benefit for the people of this province. A DA-led Gauteng Provincial Government would have expedited the operationalisation of the Women’s Living Monument in honour of heroines like Mrs. Williams-De Bruyn. This monument would boost tourism, support local businesses, and create jobs.