The recent murder on three lesbians and the sacking of a deputy health minister overshadowed the celebration of National Women’s Day, a public holiday in South Africa.

The day commemorates the national march of women on August 9, 1956 to petition against legislation that curtailed an African's freedom of movement during the apartheid era. The women sang a protest song of which the phrase: "you strike a woman, you strike a rock" has come to represent women's courage and strength in South Africa

South Africa's 1996 constitution, one of the world's most progressive, was the first in the world to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. However, these murders showed the country is failing to live up to its constitutional promise to protect all its citizens, the international rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.

But despite the gains made to improve conditions for women in the last decade, millions are still battling poverty, discrimination and abuse. Women also suffer the most from the HIV/AIDS pandemic and bear the brunt of the country's high rate of murder and rape with a staggering 52,617 women raped in the last year, the AP in South Africa reported.

Two lesbian women were shot dead in Soweto outside Johannesburg in July. Also in July the body of another lesbian woman, bearing multiple head wounds, was found in the southern KwaZulu-Natal province. Rape was suspected in both incidents. A protest in response to the recent brutal murders was held in Soweto today by concerned residents and women’s networks.

President Thabo Mbeki spoke at the main Women's Day celebrations at the Galeshewe Stadium in Kimberley in the Northern Cape. President Mbeki says much still needs to be done to promote women empowerment.

Meanwhile, South African AIDS activists were outraged over the firing of deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge. It is reported that she was fired by President Mbeki because she had gone to a Spanish AIDS conference without his permission. Ms Madlala-Routledge was praised for her open, hands-on approach to the HIV-Aids crisis, while the current president is being criticized for not doing enough to fight the epidemic.