- Person
Nonseng Ellen Kate Kuzwayo was born on the 29th of June 1914. She grew up on her grandfathers farm in Thaba Nchu and inherited the farm in 1930 but lost it when it was declared a white area. She was a campaigner against Apartheid in South Africa and a fighter for womens emancipation; she was a teacher, social worker and community leader.
She refused to work with government agencies, collaborating instead with voluntary organizations such as the YWCA, where she held the position of General Secretary in the Transvaal Region 1964, working with women in deprived communities. After the Soweto uprising in June 1976 and the arrest and killing of many young people, Soweto residents chose ten persons to study the role of members of the Local Councils who were cooperating with the apartheid regime. Ellen Kuzwayo and nine men were selected to the Committee of Ten but all ten members of the Committee were arrested by the police and detained without trial. Ellen Kuzwayo was detained at the Johannesburg Fort' Womens Jail for five months.
Her activities included being President of the Black Consumers Union and serving on the Executive Committee of the Urban Foundation. She has published "Call me Woman" (1985), "Sit and Listen: Stories from South Africa" (1996) and "Tsiamelo - a place of goodness" (1984). Ellen Kuzwayo was honored by the Johannesburg City Council and on the 2nd of April 1987 she became the first black woman to receive an Honorary degree from the University of the Witwatersrand. In 1994 she was appointed an African National Congress (ANC) member of parliament and retired after five years in 1999, receiving the State Order of Meritorious Service.
She died on the 19th of April 2006 at the age of 91, survived by her sons Bobo and Justice Moloto, six grandchildren and three great-grand children.