MEDIA RELEASE
2025-12-02
SUMMARY: The Labour Party of South Africa (Labour Party) keeps its promise to bring dignity. The Party delivered sanitary pads to a special needs school in the Northern Cape, standing in heartfelt solidarity with girls who are too often forgotten—especially those living with disabilities. The Party’s gesture highlights the painful truth that millions of South African girls still miss school because of period poverty. The Labour Party’s message is clear: sanitary pads are a matter of dignity, not luxury.
On 19 November 2025, Labour Disability of the Labour Party demonstrated compassionate leadership by delivering sanitary pads to a special needs school in the Northern Cape.
Labour Disability is a substructure of the Labour Party which embraces and advocates for empowerment and inclusivity. This is reflected in its slogan: Empowers and Enables.
The efforts of the substructure range from community engagement and inclusive consultative processes with stakeholders. This ensures structural and systemic change through policy formation.
Following the sanitary pads drive in August 2025, the Labour Party resolved to recognise and acknowledge those who are marginalised and sometimes forgotten in society: children living with disabilities.
Labour Disability stands for empowerment, inclusivity, and accessibility. It is against this commitment that the Labour Party delivered sanitary pads to a special needs school in the Northern Cape. This is in continuation to the Party’s commitment to restoring dignity in communities.
“By providing these sanitary towels, we are ensuring that every girl here can attend school, stay confident, and focus on her education without a worry” , said the interim National Chairperson of Labour Disability.
“For us, this is a sign of a healthy conscience. With so many injustices, and communities being marginalised, to recognise and acknowledge children living with disabilities as equal and deserving of respect and dignity, is important”, noted Joseph Mathunjwa interim President of the Labour Party.
In 2017, the Sanitary Dignity Implementation Framework (SDIF) was developed and approved by Cabinet. This was in response to the myriad issues around menstruation being accessibility, affordability, and absenteeism in schools due to lack of resources.
The effectiveness of this framework remains questionable, especially when UN Women statistics still paint a heartbreaking picture: approximately 7 million girls miss school every month due to period poverty in South Africa.
In 2019, the then Minister of Finance, Mr Tito Mboweni, announced that value added tax (VAT) would no longer apply to sanitary pads. However, despite this progressive intervention, including the tabled Menstrual Health Equity Bill, it raises the question: why does period poverty still exist so rampantly in our communities?
“Efforts like the ending VAT on sanitary pads will struggle to make a tangible difference in the lives of the majority of South Africans who are faced with unemployment, poverty and inequality”, stated Mathunjwa.
“So long as there is no real plan to economically liberate South Africans, basic services and needs will continue to be nearly unattainable for many South Africans. In other words, you remove VAT, but households are still surviving on R350 grants”, added Mathunjwa.
The efforts by the Labour Party are an act of acknowledging that there is a crisis young girls are facing, and a sign of solidarity against period poverty.
Sanitary pads are not a luxury; they are essential for the dignity of all girls and women — without discrimination.
“We hope to do more – it is possible! We will work tirelessly to protect and restore the dignity of young girls in South Africa”, Mathunjwa concluded.
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