Charlotte Maxeke was honoured as the SARB commemorates women’s role in SA history.
For generations, the stories of women who helped shape South Africa’s Struggle for freedom have lived in history books, archives, and the memories of those who came before.
Now, some of those stories will quite literally be placed in the hands of South Africans.
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has launched two commemorative circulation coins honouring women whose courage and resistance helped shape the country’s journey towards freedom, equality, and justice.
The first R2 coin marks 125 years since Charlotte Maxeke became the first Black South African woman to graduate with a university degree.
The second marks 70 years since the historic 1956 Women’s March, when more than 20 000 women marched on the Union Buildings to protest against apartheid pass laws.
SARB Governor Lesetja Kganyago said the coins were intended to correct an imbalance in how South Africa remembers its history.
“Currency also has public meaning. It is one of how a nation tells the world whom it represents, what it stands for and what it remembers,” Kganyago said.
He said Maxeke’s 1901 graduation from Wilberforce University in the United States was extraordinary because she achieved it against racial, social, economic, and cultural barriers.
“It was not only a personal milestone; it was a direct act of defiance against the limits that the authorities and society of her time had placed on black people, and on black women in particular.”
However, Kganyago said Maxeke’s significance went beyond being a trailblazer in education. She used her education to serve others, founded the Bantu Women’s League in 1918 and mobilised African women against pass laws.
Her activism, he said, helped lay the groundwork for the resistance that followed, including the 1956 march.
“Maxeke’s remarkable achievement and the march of 1956 remind us that women were not spectators in the making of a democratic South Africa,” Kganyago said.
“They were organisers. They were leaders. They were politically astute. They were agents of change.”
The 1956 march remains one of the defining moments in South Africa’s liberation history, with women arriving in Pretoria carrying petitions and, in many cases, their children, as they challenged the apartheid government.
Minister of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities Sindisiwe Chikunga said the coins were an important recognition of women whose contributions to the liberation Struggle had often been overlooked.
“For generations, women stood at the forefront of resistance, organised communities, sustained families during periods of oppression, and made immeasurable contributions to the liberation Struggle. Yet their contributions have too often been overlooked,” she said.
“Today, South Africa affirms that our national story cannot be told without recognising the central role played by women.”
Maxeke’s achievement, Chikunga said, was particularly powerful because it came at a time when Black women faced both racial discrimination and gender barriers.
“Her achievement was far more than academic. It was a declaration that Black women were entitled to knowledge, dignity, leadership and equal participation in society.”
But the women being remembered were not simply names in a history lesson. Chikunga recalled the women behind the 1956 march, Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa, Lillian Diedericks, and Sophia Williams-De Bruyn, whose activism helped turn ordinary women into a formidable political force.
“Mama Lilian Ngoyi did not become extraordinary because she sought prominence. She became extraordinary because she organised,” Chikunga said.
“Mama Helen Joseph did not become a symbol because she pursued comfort. She became one because she embraced sacrifice.”
Gender justice advocate Mbuyiselo Botha said the commemoration was a significant acknowledgement of women’s resistance, but argued that their contribution should be viewed beyond the fight against apartheid.
However, he believes there is another layer to their story that should not be forgotten.
“These women were not only challenging apartheid as a system, but they were also challenging patriarchy and its attendant consequences,” Botha said.
He pointed to the restrictions women faced, even within liberation politics.
“Women had not been allowed to be part of the decision-making of the ANC,” he said.
Their resistance, he argued, was therefore a challenge to both political oppression and the patriarchal structures that sought to limit women’s voices. For Botha, the coins should also prompt an uncomfortable question: how far has South Africa really come?
While celebrating the women who fought for equality, society must still confront the inequalities women experience today, including disparities in pay and representation.
“We should also have a conversation… as we speak, how many women are earning less than their male counterparts?” he asked.
“Why? Because they are women. Because that’s how patriarchy operates.”
While welcoming the symbolism of the coins, Botha said the commemoration should be accompanied by continued action to address gender inequality.
“The symbolism, which is important, which is proper, is profound,” he said.
