Helen Joseph (8 April 1905 – 25 December 1992),  was born in Sussex, England and graduated from King's College, in 1927. After working as a teacher in India for three years, Helen came to South Africa in 1931, where she met and married Billie Joseph. She served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during World War II as an information and welfare officer, and later became a social worker.

In 1951 Helen took a job with the Garment Workers Union, led by Solly Sachs. Sachs had a profound influence on Helen. Through him she came to see the true face of apartheid, the physical and psychological oppression of people not classified white. She was a founder member of the Congress of Democrats, and one of the leaders who read out clauses of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People in Kliptown in 1955.

Helen was appalled by the double oppression of black women, and was a pivotal figure in the formation of the Federation of South African Women. The 9th August 1956 was one of the most important moments of her memorable political career, when, with the FEDSAW leaders, she spearheaded a march of 20,000 women to Pretoria's Union Buildings to protest against the pass laws. This day is celebrated in South Africa today as National Women's Day.

She was arrested on a charge of high treason in December 1956, becoming a defendant in the 1956 Treason Trial, then banned in 1957. On the 13 October 1962, Helen became the first person to be placed under house arrest under the Sabotage Act that had just been introduced by the apartheid government. She narrowly escaped death more than once, surviving bullets shot through her bedroom and a bomb wired to her front gate. Her last banning order was lifted when she was 80 years old.

She wrote three books: If THIS Be Treason; Tomorrow's Sun, in which she documented her 8,000 mile search for people banished to remote regions; and her autobiography, Side by Side. One of Helen's many endearing qualities was that there was no separation between her public and private life. The loyalty and devotion she gave to the struggle was the same as that she gave to her many friends who became her family. Helen had no children of her own, but regularly she would make herself available for the children of comrades in prison or in exile. Among the children who spent time in her care were Winnie and Nelson Mandela's daughters Zinzi and Zenani and Bram Fischer's daughter Ilsa.

Her two favourite days in the year were her birthday, April 8, and Christmas Day. In the early 1960s Helen started a tradition of remembering all those in exile, in prison and those that have died in the struggle. Even during the years of house arrest and bans, this commemoration continued. At times it was only possible for her friends and families of prisoners to file past her gate one at a time, but Helen was always there to greet and encourage them.
Helen Joseph died on the 25 December 1992 at the age of 87.

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Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is the current Deputy President of South Africa.  She was appointed by President Thabo Mbeki in June 2005.  Before that, she was the Minister of Minerals and Energy (June 1999 – June 2005).

She has close links to Cape Town.  She earned her Master of Philosophy degree from the University of Cape Town in 2003.  In the late 1990s, she was the provincial vice-chairperson of the ANC's Western Cape. She was also was a founding member of the Guguletu Community Development Corporation.  From 1987 through 1989 she was director of TEAM, a developmental Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Cape Town

She also has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science and Education from the National University of Lesotho, has studied Gender Policy and Planning Development at University College of London in 1988, and received an Honorary Doctorate from Witswatersrand Technikon in 2003.  

She has worked for women's and youth organisations, and even ran her own management consulting company between 1993 – 1994.

She is married to South Africa's former head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Bulelani Ngcuka, and they have one son.

Quotes:

1. There will never be shared growth or meaningful growth if we do not bring women and young people into the mainstream economy in large numbers and not just a handful.  The changing of an economic paradigm and education, has to be our legacy that will resonate 50 years from now at the very least.
2. Without a better life for women there is no brighter tomorrow for all South Africans, without a better life for women in Africa, there is no brighter life for Africa.

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Shamima Shaikh, born on 14 September 1960 and died on 8 January 1998 was South Africa's most well-known Muslim women's rights activist.

She was born in Louis Trichardt in Limpopo Province. She was the second of six children born to Salahuddin and Mariam Shaikh. Her first school years were in Louis Trichardt, until the family moved to Pietersburg. She also studied at the University of Durban Westville which was reserved for students of Indian descent during times of apartheid in South Africa. In 1984 she completed her Bachelor of Arts Degree, majoring in Arabic and Psychology. Those years in the Universities the politics were getting hotter and hotter, she got involved in the Azanian People's Organization (AZAPO) for two years.

In 1985 Shamima was elected to the executive committee of the Islamic Society of UD-W. At the time there was a boycott of white owned businesses in Durban. On September 4, 1985, Shamima was arrested for the distribution of the pamphlets organized by Fosatu (Federation of South African Trade Unions) advising communities to boycott stores. Fosatu is the largest trade union federation in the country and supported by the Muslim Students Association of South Africa (MSA). She spent the next few hours locked up at Durban's CR Swart Police Station, which is now called Durban Central Police Station. She was arrested with the president of the MSA, Na'eem Jeenah. They first met in jail and two years later, they got married.

Shamima Shaikh taught at the Taxila Primary and Secondary school in her hometown of Pietersburg which is now called Polokwane. She married Jeenah on the 20 December 1987 and moved to Johannesburg. She gave birth to Minhaj in September 1988 and to Shir'a in 1990. In 1989 Shaikh became involved with a Muslim community newspaper, al-Qalam which was being edited by her husband. She also became increasingly involved in the Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa (MYM).

In 1993 Shamima Shaikh was elected as the Transvaal Regional Chairperson of the Muslim Youth Movement as a member of its National Executive and only the second woman to hold such a position. Shaikh became the first chairperson of the Muslim Community Broadcasting Trust (MCBT) and she was awarded a community radio license for Johannesburg. She was also involved with the founding and establishment of the Muslim Personal Law Board of South Africa. She was a member of the Board until it was shuted down by the United Ulama Council of South Africa.

Shamima was diagnosed with breast cancer. As a result, she had to undergo a lumpectomy and radiation therapy. A year later, doctors found that the cancer had affected her entire skeleton. For this she was treated with high dose chemotherapy. After the cancer had disappeared, she had decided not to receive chemotherapy again if the cancer recurred. She said she preferred to die with dignity and continue doing till the end what she loved rather than being sick in hospital. In 1996 she her health deteriorated.

On the December 22, 1997, Shaikh completed her final public engagement. She delivered a paper, "Women & Islam – The Gender Struggle in South Africa: The Ideological Struggle" at the 21st Islamic Tarbiyyah Programme of the Muslim Youth Movement. Seventeen days later, Shamima died on the 8 of January 1998  
One of the four funeral prayers performed for her was led by a female friend - with women and men following - as per Shaikh's request. Also, many women attended her funeral prayer at a Johannesburg Mosque and at the Claremont Main Road Mosque in Cape Town. In Pietersburg, dozens of women were present at her burial.

Source:  Shamima   

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