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President Cyril Ramaphosa speaking at the funeral of ANC stalwart Gertrude Shope at the Great Hall at Wits University, May 31, 2025.
President Cyril Ramaphosa says women are the ones holding the nation together. He was delivering the eulogy at the funeral of ANC stalwart Gertrude Shope.
Shope, who passed away at the age of 99, has been honoured with a Special Official Category One funeral.
Ramaphosa says Shope was an icon of the women’s movement.
“She was an icon of our movement and the women’s movement. Her passing comes less than a week after we buried Comrade Lungi Mnganga-Gcabashe, the Deputy President of the ANC Women’s League. Women – our mothers, our grandmothers, our wives, our sisters, our aunts and our daughters – are izintsika. Like the pillar that holds the structure of the hut together, women hold up our homes, our families and the nation.”
Ramaphosa says, “To have lost two women leaders – izintsika – in such close succession is a great loss. And yet, even amidst our grief, we take comfort in the legacies they left behind.”
The Wits Great Hall in Braamfontein stands as a place of both sorrow and celebration today, as South Africans gather to honour the life of Isithwalandwe/Seaparankwe Mme Gertrude Ntiti Shope. The Special Official Funeral Service brings together family, friends, comrades, and… pic.twitter.com/5IyI8bzDx8
— Gauteng ANC (@GautengANC) May 31, 2025
Ramaphosa says the legacy of stalwart Shope will live on through the ANC.
Ramaphosa says, “They bore the torch; they were torchbearers, and they are now passing it on to the younger generation. That is going to take that same torch and take it forward. And hopefully – and this I believe firmly – that torch should not and will not be dimmed. It will be a torch that will keep on being passed down the generations, like we inherited a torch that was handed over by the great Nelson Mandela or Tambo. We’re taking that torch forward, sometimes stumbling and falling, but forever rising and holding that torch high.”
VIDEO | President Ramaphosa describes Gertrude Shope as an ‘icon’ in the liberation movement:
The President has called on all sectors of society to combat the growing scourge of femicide in the country.
This comes as the country still faces one of the highest rates of gender-based violence targeting women.
Ramaphosa says men should be on the front line in the battle against gender-based violence and femicide.
“Ma-Shope’s life’s work is not yet complete. It is up to us to take forward women’s struggles for full equality, for freedom from violence, and for the right to live in security, comfort, and peace. And like Ma-Sophie said all those years ago, this is not a struggle that must be waged by women alone.”
Special Official Funeral Service of ANC stalwart Gertrude Shope:
