Ruth Mompati on the Women's March 1956

Ruth Mompati was a member of the ANC Women's League Executive Committee. She worked for Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela in their law firm. On the day of the 1956 Women's March to the Union Buildings, she and Bertha Gxowa were given an important task. They had to count the number of petitions that would be handed to the government officials. That's how she knows there were far more than 20 000 women protesting against pass laws that day. This recording of Ruth Mompati's eyewitness account of that historic day is courtesy of the Liliesleaf Trust.