To bring honour to influential women who have their roots planted in Salt River.
This is the key focus at this year’s Salt River Heritage Day Festival.
The festival, which was established in 2019, will take place in Fenton Road on Sunday 25 September.
Lutfi Omar, Salt River Heritage Society chair, says the aim of the festival is to celebrate the history of the area and its people.
“The memories that we want to preserve are the stories of our heroes and sheroes and also the historic events that happened here. We are rewriting history from the bottom up.”
He says the theme for the festival last year was to celebrate history and politics. At the event they unveiled three murals which were created by local artists.
The first mural honoured four legal heroes with roots in Salt River and surrounds. The murals based in Pope Street exhibits Judge Siraj Desai, Dullah Omar, Anwah Nagia, and Benny Kies.
On Fenton Road Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis’ mural was unveiled while murals painted in honour of Palestinians were being painted on the corners of Chapel Street and Addison Road.
Omar says: “Our heritage is closely linked with solidarity; we feel that solidarity is the highest form of being human. This year we pay tribute to the women of Salt River.”
He says they have decided to honour four women.
“We will be exhibiting Gadijah Isaacs, she was one of the garment worker unionist at Rex Trueform. In the past Salt River was the centre of the textile industry. She mobilised women on the factory floor. She also got to secure bursaries for the local doctors in the area.”
He says they will also pay homage to Zuraya Abass.
“She was a Yengeni Trial co-accused, they did the Freedom Charter as a means to fight the charges against them. She also founded Molo Songololo. We also honour Karima Brown, she stood against corruption, which is a huge problem in South Africa, and gender inequality.”
He adds: “The other woman is Gladys Thomas. She was born in Salt River but had to move to Lakeside because of the Group Areas Act. By honouring her we want to highlight the Group Areas Act and how it had an effect on our communities. It is still apparent in the area today in the form of gentrification.”
Omar says due to not securing a permit in time, the paintings of the women will be painted on a banner. She says the murals will be created once they have secured the permit from the City.
He challenged other communities to follow suit. “We would like other communities to do what we are doing, to start writing their history and to look at how we can use the stories and the legacies left behind to build a better future.”
