LETTER: Women’s monument is a disgrace

Gauteng cannot credibly claim to honour women while the Women’s Living Heritage Monument in Tshwane, which is meant to honour the invaluable contributions of women to our nation’s history, has instead become a symbol of governmental neglect and mismanagement.

This Women’s Day should be a call to restore not just this monument but also our commitment to preserving and respecting women’s contributions to our society.

Completed in 2018 at a cost of nearly R200m, this monument stands empty and unused. Toilet and roof leakages, cracked walls, and a courtyard overrun with weeds — this is what the monument has been reduced to. What message are we sending to the women of SA? That their contributions are worth commemorating but not worth maintaining? That we can spend millions on construction but are unable to ensure basic functionality?

The Gauteng department of sports, arts, culture & recreation’s response to this situation is grossly inadequate. Installing a new art incubator in a building unfit for occupation is like applying a Band-Aid to a gaping wound. We need decisive action, not cosmetic fixes. 

It is high time the government ensures that this monument, which has an operational budget, becomes fully functioning. The situation highlights the need for consistent, year-round efforts to support and uplift women, rather than symbolic gestures on a single day of the year.

We owe it to the women of SA — past, present and future — to rectify this situation. Let us transform this monument from a symbol of neglect into a true celebration of women’s contributions to our society.

Kingsol Chabalala, MPL
DA Gauteng sports, arts, culture & recreation spokesperson

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