Women

Social anthropologist, world-renowned social scientist, author, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) member of Parliament

Member of the African National Congress, business woman, Governor of the Reserve Bank.

Activist and Martyr. Died as a result of her participation in the South African liberation struggle.

Nurse, midwife, lawyer and member of the UDF and NOW

Novelist, short-story writer and the first Black woman in South Africa to publish a novel.

Anti-apartheid activist; teacher; during the Passive Resistance Campaign in 1946, she and Mrs Thayanayagie Pillay, organ...

Feminist, anti-apartheid activist, human rights activist, trade unionist, author, writer, teacher, initiated the ‘Women’...

Anti-apartheid activist, women’s rights activist, member of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL), banned

Communist, political activist, 90 day detainee

Anti-forced removals campaigner, shop steward, member of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL), recipient...

Member of the African National Congress Women’s League (ANCWL), one of the organisers and participants of the 1956 Women...

Member of the Black Sash, founder of the Transvaal Rural Action Committee (TRAC) to fight forced removal

Provided a safe house for exiled South Africans living in Swaziland (now Eswatini), recipient of the Government’s Nation...

Anti-racism activist, writer, teacher, founding member of the Congress of Democrats (COD), founded Early Years Trainers ...

Anti-apartheid activist, teacher, trade unionist, member of the Natal Indian Congress, African National Congress, United...

Anti-apartheid activist, gay rights activist, feminist, former Secretary-General of NUSAS, founding member of OLGA, lobb...

Anti-apartheid activist, founding member of the Liberal Party, pioneered literacy initiatives aimed at disadvantaged Bla...

Linguist, writer, and educator

member of Cape Women’s Enfranchisement League, friend of Olive Schreiner, politically opposed Jan Smuts government, lect...

Anti-apartheid activist, member of the Liberal Party (LP), the Congress of Democrats (COD), and the South African Commun...

Anti-apartheid activist, feminist, writer, journalist, co-founded Rwanda Gift for Life, 2018 winner of the Independent P...

Political activist, worked with SACTU and a member of the Young Communist League (YCL) and the South African Communist P...

National Secretary of the Young Women’s Christian Association, member and Vice President of the Executive Committee of t...

Trade unionist, organised workers in the catering trade, first secretary of the Waitress Union, secretary of the Nationa...

Trade unionist, member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the ANC (African National Congress), political pr...

South African photographer, member of Afrapix collective, musician

South African lawyer, politician, author, one of the country's early advocates for women's rights, one of the first wome...

Nurse, Member of the ANC and office-bearer, National Executive Committee member of the Federation of South African Women...

Singer, performer, Co-Director at Mzanzi Cultural Industries 

first women professor and Head of Department at then Natal University (now the University of KwaZulu-Natal) medical scho...

preschool teacher, anti-apartheid activist, leader of the Black Sash, active member of Mothers (and Others) Against the ...

Medical doctor, Vice President of the Natal Indian Congress and a pioneer in women's resistance

Member of the SACPO, ANC, SACTU, FAWU and FEDSAW, trade union organiser, banned person

Medical doctor, member of the NEUM, Chairperson of the Durban APDUSA branch, banned person, political prisoner and exile...

Ma Baloi as she was fondly addressed, was born on 8 August 1936. She lived in the region of Dunn, in Ward fourteen. She ...

Magdelene Moloto was born in a Mission Station in Limpopo. She lived with her grandmother until she completed her primar...

Artist

Political activist and trade unionist (1950s)