Protest against pass laws in Langa

Date: 4 Jan 1953
Updated: 30 Sep 2019

Hundreds of Blacks assembled in the Langa township outside Cape Town to protest against new pass laws. Delivering a fiery speech to the crowd Dora Tamana, a member of the ANC Women's League and later a founding member of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW), declared: "We women will never carry these passes. This is something that touches my heart. I appeal to you young Africans to come forward and fight. These passes make the road even narrower for us. We have seen unemployment, lack of accommodation and families broken because of passes. We have seen it with our men. Who will look after our children when we go to jail for a small technical offence - not having a pass?" Click here to read more about the anti-pass campaign.

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01South African History Online, 'Women's Resistance in the 1960s Sharpeville and its Aftermath', from SAHO, [online], Available at www.sahistory.org.za [Accessed: 03 December 2013]

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). Protest against pass laws in Langa. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011788

South African History Online (2011) 'Protest against pass laws in Langa', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011788 (Accessed: 24 July 2026).

South African History Online, Protest against pass laws in Langa [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011788, (accessed 24 July 2026).

"Protest against pass laws in Langa." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011788. Accessed 24 July 2026.

South African History Online. "Protest against pass laws in Langa." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011788.