National Women's Day (Zulu: Usuku Lwabesifazane, Afrikaans: Nasionale Vrouedag) is a South African public holiday celebrated annually on 9 August.

The day commemorates the 1956 march of approximately 20,000 women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to petition against the country's pass laws that required South Africans defined as "black" under The Population Registration Act to carry an internal passport, known as a passbook, that served to maintain population segregation, control urbanisation, and manage migrant labour during the apartheid era.

On 9 August 1956, more than 20,000 South African women of all races staged a march on the Union Buildings in protest against the proposed amendments to the Urban Areas Act of 1950, commonly referred to as the "pass laws".

[3] The march was led by Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia Williams.

[5]: 1  The women stood silently for 30 minutes and then started singing a protest song that was composed in honour of the occasion: Wathint'Abafazi Wathint'imbokodo!