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The graves of three struggle heroines – all in Soweto – will be declared national heritage sites during Women's Month celebrations.
Minister of arts and culture Lulu Xingwana
The graves of three women who fought for equal rights will be declared national heritage sites during Women's Month.
They are Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Charlotte Maxeke, says Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwana. Women's Month, an annual national event around National Women's Day on 9 August, marks the anniversary of the Women's March of 1956, when 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest against the carrying of pass books.
Ngoyi and Joseph led the anti-pass protest. All three are known for their stance against apartheid.
The graves of Ngoyi and Joseph are at Soweto's Avalon Cemetery, alongside the final resting places of many struggle heroes, such as Hector Pieterson, Tsietsi Mashinini, Joe Slovo and a number of Umkhonto we Sizwe soldiers. Maxeke is buried at Nancefield Cemetery, also in Soweto.
The cemeteries are in the care of Johannesburg City Parks, which is also responsible for managing the city's parks, open green areas, street trees and conserved spaces.
Xingwana announced on Tuesday, 4 August that the graves would be declared national heritage sites by the South African Heritage Resources Agency and her department "as part of our national legacy projects for honouring the forgotten and unsung heroines of the liberation struggle".
Speaking of the women, she said: "Through their actions, they helped to lay the foundations for the building of a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic country."
During Women's Month, the country commemorated the historic struggles and sacrifices of South African women who helped bring democracy and opportunities for all. "Through this commemoration, we should reaffirm the role that women can play in advancing society towards achieving a better life for all."
The official declarations of heritage status will take place on 20 August and will include a church service, unveiling of site plaques and speeches. The memorial at Nancefield Cemetery to mark National Women's Day will become an integral part of the struggle and heritage routes.
Johannesburg's mayoral committee member for environment Matshidiso Mfikoe also paid tribute to the three women "who contributed so unselfishly to improving the quality of life of the people of South Africa".
Lilian Ngoyi
Lilian Masediba Ngoyi was born in 1911 in Pretoria. Widowed when her daughter was just three, Ngoyi was a politician and anti-apartheid activist, a treason trialist and president of the ANC Women's League.
While working for a clothing factory between 1945 and 1956, Ngoyi joined the Garment Workers' Union under Solly Sachs, and soon became one of its leading figures. She later joined the ANC and took part in the 1950 Defiance Campaign. She was arrested for using facilities reserved for whites in a post office.
Not long after joining the ANC, Ngoyi was elected president of the ANC Women's League. When the Federation of South African Women (Fedsaw) was formed in 1954, she became one of its national vice-presidents and in 1956 she was elected president.
During her term as Fedsaw president, Ngoyi travelled extensively to socialist countries such as Russia and China. She became a member of the Transvaal ANC executive from 1955 and in December 1956, she was the first woman to be elected to the ANC national executive committee.
It came at the end of an eventful year, one in which Ngoyi gained international recognition. In one incident, she was arrested with Dora Tamana – another anti-apartheid activist – for trying to board a ship on her way to a conference in Switzerland without a passport. She addressed protest meetings against apartheid in a number of world centres, including London's Trafalgar Square.
She gained wider respect when, together with Joseph and several prominent women involved in the struggle, she led the march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on the 9 August 1956 to protest against pass laws.
Holding thousands of petitions in one hand, Ngoyi was the one who knocked on the door of Prime Minister JG Strijdom to hand over the petitions.
A defining moment in Ngoyi's political life came when, along with 156 other leading figures in the struggle, she was arrested for high treason in 1956. She stood trial until 1961 in the infamous Treason Trial. While out on bail, Ngoyi was arrested during the 1960 state of emergency and spent five months in jail, mostly in solitary confinement.
In October 1962, she was banned and confined to Orlando township in Soweto, and forbidden to attend any gatherings. In the mid-1960s, she was jailed under the 90-day detention act and spent 71 days in solitary confinement. She was banned for an additional five years in 1975, when her banning orders elapsed, a move that suppressed her political activities.
Affectionately known as "MaNgoyi", she suffered heart problems and died in March 1980 at the age of 68.
Helen Joseph
Helen Fennell was born on 8 April 1905 in Sussex, in England. A teacher and social worker by profession, she grew up in London and graduated with a degree in English from the University of London in 1927.
She moved to India, where she taught at Mahbubia School, before coming to live in Durban, South Africa in 1931. Here, she met and married dentist Billie Joseph.
Joseph was exposed to some of the harsh realities of South African life while serving as an information and welfare officer in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during the Second World War, and through her subsequent decision to become a social worker.
When the war ended, she took up a job with the Garment Workers' Union and met Solly Sachs. She became a founder member of the ANC's white ally, the Congress of Democrats and the national secretary of Fedsaw in the 1950s.
That decade entrenched her stance as a political activist. Joseph was one of the leaders who read out the clauses of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in 1955 and in 1956, was one of the main organisers of the Women's March.
She was charged with high treason in 1956, banned in 1957 and was a victim of several assassination attempts.
Joseph was diagnosed with cancer in 1971, which she survived. She died on 25 December 1992 in Johannesburg. Joseph was awarded the ANC's highest award, the Isitwalandwe/Seaparankoe Medal, for her devotion to the liberation struggle and for her defiance, integrity and courage.
Charlotte Maxeke
Charlotte Makgomo Manye was born in Ramokgopa in the Pietersburg district on 7 April 1874 and was recognised as one of the first black South Africans to fight for freedom for African women. She received a missionary education and became a teacher in Kimberley.
A choir trip to the USA in 1896 resulted in her studying at Wilberforce University in Ohio with pan-Africanist WEB du Bois. She returned to South Africa in 1901 as South Africa's first black graduate.
Manye became an evangelist and met and married Rev Marshall Maxeke. The Maxekes settled in Johannesburg where she established herself as a writer on social and political positions occupied by women.
Maxeke was politically active throughout her adult life and organised an anti-pass movement in Bloemfontein in 1913 and in 1918. She also founded the Bantu Women's League of the South African Native National Congress, the forerunner of the ANC.
As leader of this organisation, Maxeke led several protests against the apartheid government. She was also involved in protests against low wages and took part in the formation of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union in 1920.
Maxeke was also involved in multiracial movements. She addressed the Women's Reform Club in Pretoria, an organisation for the voting rights of women, and joined the Joint Council of Europeans and Bantus. Maxeke was also elected president of the Women's Missionary Society.
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