In pictures: S Africa women march

Women started gathering early in the morning in the South African capital to mark the 50th anniversary of a historic anti-apartheid march.

They were commemorating a protest by 20,000 women demanding an end to hated pass laws that applied only to anyone who was not white.

This time tens of thousands came - some in traditional dress, dancing and singing - and the mood was carnival-like.

Old and young took part, led by some of the activists who marched in the original 1956 protest.

Fifty years on, women are politically advanced, but South Africa still struggles with terrible rates of domestic violence.

In addition to marking the 1956 march, participants were calling for more be done to stop domestic violence.

President Thabo Mbeki told those gathered on the lawns of Pretoria's Union building that the "scourge" of women and child abuse had to be addressed.

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