Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and the second wife of Nelson Mandela. She served as a Member of Parliament from 1994 to 2003, and from 2009 until her death, and was a deputy minister of arts and culture from 1994 to 1996. A member of the African National Congress (ANC) political party, she served on the ANC's National Executive Committee and headed its Women's League. Madikizela-Mandela was known to her supporters as the "Mother of the Nation".
Albertina SisuluOMSG was a South African anti-apartheid activist. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she was the founding co-president of the United Democratic Front. In South Africa, where she was affectionately known as Ma Sisulu, she is often called a mother of the nation.
Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini-Zuma, sometimes referred to by her initials NDZ, is a South African politician, medical doctor and former anti-apartheid activist. A longstanding member of the African National Congress (ANC), she currently serves as Chancellor of the University of Limpopo.
Baleka Mbete is a South African politician who was the Deputy President of South Africa from September 2008 to May 2009. She was also the Speaker of the National Assembly for two non-consecutive terms from 2004 to 2008 and from 2014 to 2019. She also served as Deputy Speaker between 1996 and 2004. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she was first elected to the National Assembly in 1994 and stepped down from her seat in 2019.
Indira Naidoo is an Australian author, journalist, and television and radio presenter, of Indian South African descent who hosts the Compass show on ABC TV
The Natal Indian Congress (NIC) was a political organisation established in 1894 to fight discrimination against Indians in the Natal Colony, and later the Natal Province, of South Africa. Founded by Mahatma Gandhi, it later served an important role in opposing apartheid. It was the oldest affiliate of the South African Indian Congress.
Angela Thokozile Didiza is a South African politician serving as Speaker of the National Assembly since 14 June 2024. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she was formerly the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development between May 2019 and June 2024. She served an earlier stint in the cabinet between 1999 and 2008.
Beverley Naidoo is a South African author of children's books who lives in the UK. Her first three novels featured life in South Africa where she lived until her twenties. She has also written a biography of the trade unionist Neil Aggett.
The African National Congress Women's League (ANCWL) is an auxiliary women's political organization of the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa. This organization has its precedent in the Bantu Women's League, and it oscillated from being the Women's Section to the Women's League from its founding, through the exile years, and in a post-apartheid South Africa. After women were allowed to become members of the ANC in 1943, the ANCWL was created as the means by which Black South African women could contribute to the national liberation struggle by channeling Black women's political activity into the ANC by way of the ANCWL.
Elizabeth Dipuo Peters is a South African politician who is the Deputy Minister of Small Business Development of the Republic of South Africa from 7 March 2023. She was previously the Minister of Transport from 10 July 2013 until 30 March 2017, in the Zuma administration, and former Minister of Energy from 2009 to 2013 having served as successor to Manne Dipico as the second Premier of the Northern Cape Province, 22 April 2004 to 10 May 2009. A member of the African National Congress (ANC), she serves on the Women's League National Executive Committee. Dipuo Peters resigned as a member of parliament for the African National Congress in April 2017.
Kumi Naidoo is a human rights and climate justice activist. He was International Executive Director of Greenpeace International and Secretary General of Amnesty International. Naidoo served as the Secretary-General of CIVICUS, the international alliance for citizen participation, from 1998 to 2008. As a fifteen-year old, he organised students in school boycotts against the apartheid regime and its educational system in South Africa. Naidoo's activism went from neighbourhood organising and community youth work to civil disobedience with mass mobilisations against the white controlled apartheid government. Naidoo is a co-founder of the Helping Hands Youth Organisation. He has written about his activism in this period in his memoirs titled Letters to My Mother: The Making of a Troublemaker. In the book Naidoo recounts the day of his mother's suicide when he was just 15 and how it became a catalyst for his journey into radical action against the Nationalist Party's apartheid regime.
Thandi Ruth Modise is a South African politician who served as the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans from 2021 to 2024. She was previously the Premier of the North West from 2010 to 2014, Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces from 2014 to 2019, and Speaker of the National Assembly from 2019 to 2021.
Indres Elatchininathan Naidoo was a South African anti-apartheid activist. An early member of the people's liberation army, Umkhonto we Sizwe, Naidoo served 10 years in prison on Robben Island for sabotage between 1963 and 1973. After his release from prison, Naidoo played a leading role in the revival of the struggle in the 1970s until he was obliged to go into exile in 1977. He served the African National Congress (ANC) in Mozambique and in the German Democratic Republic. The ANC was unbanned in 1990, and Naidoo returned to South Africa the following year. When the ANC won the 1994 general election, Naidoo was appointed to the Senate and served in Parliament until 1999. In 2014, Naidoo was awarded the Order of Mendi for Bravery in Silver.
Sefora Hixsonia "Sisi" Ntombela is a South African politician who was the 6th Premier of the Free State and a Member of the Free State Provincial Legislature for the African National Congress. She previously served as the Free State MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements and as MEC for Social Development. Ntombela was also the Deputy President of the African National Congress Women's League and the treasurer of the Free State ANC.
Robben Island Prison is an inactive prison on Robben Island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometers (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa. Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid. Since then, three former inmates of the prison have gone on to become President of South Africa.
The 2019 service delivery protests refers to a series of protests and civil disturbances taking place across urban areas of South Africa related to poor service delivery that started in Alexandra on 3 April 2019.
Nomvuzo Francisca Shabalala was a South African politician. She was a member of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party. From 2011 to 2016 she was the deputy mayor of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. In 2018, Shabalala was sworn in as a member of the National Assembly.
Cynthia 'Ma' Fraser was a South African political activist.
Beauty Nomvuzo Dlulane is a South African politician who is currently serving as the chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Sports, Arts and Culture in the National Assembly of South Africa. She has represented the African National Congress (ANC) in Parliament since 1997. Between 2012 and 2022, she was also a member of the National Executive Committee of the ANC.
Lungi Annette Mnganga-Gcabashe is a South African politician from KwaZulu-Natal who represents the African National Congress (ANC) in the National Assembly. She has been the Deputy President of the ANC Women's League since July 2023.
