The chairperson of the Commission on Gender Equality, Joyce Piliso Seroke, said it was significant to receive a National Order for her contribution to the struggle against gender oppression in the same building on which women once marched to demand their rights.
She was one of 24 recipients who received the country’s highest honours at the ninth presentation of National Orders at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday.
President Thabo Mbeki bestowed the order at a ceremony attended by several government ministers, politicians and prominent members of civil society.
”[They are] the stars on our national firmament,” Mbeki said about the recipients.
Seroke said she was elated and humbled to be awarded the Order of the Grand Counsellor of the Baobab, given to citizens with distinguished service in several fields.
”It brought memories of the past and made me nostalgic, thinking it was all worth it and that the country had a came a long way,” she said.
Another recipient of the Order of the Grand Counsellor of the Baobab was Sally Motlana, the honorary president of the Black Housewives League. She received it for her contribution to women’s emancipation and work in the struggle.
”I’m proud of the women — they did not stay behind their pots and pans and children, but they took to the front lines, and it’s no surprise they are being honoured today,” Motlana said.
It was a sentiment shared by Rica Hodgson, who worked in the underground during the struggle and who was awarded the Order of Luthuli, awarded to those who contributed to the struggle for democracy.
”If I had to do it all over again, I would,” she said, calling the award ”just wonderful”.
United States entertainer Harry Belafonte was one of the foreign nationals to be awarded the Order of the Companions of OR Tambo, but he did not attend.
A former Palestinian ambassador to South Africa, Salman El-Herfi, was on hand to receive his National Order. ”It is a great thing from a great nation and a great people,” he said.
Several orders were also awarded posthumously with spouses and children collecting the awards on behalf of the recipients. — Sapa