Sister of Justice

LILIAN NGOYI 1911-1980

Born in 1911 25 September in Pretoria of Bapedi parents, Mrs. Ngoyi grew up in conditions of abject poverty. Her father, now dead, changed employment and the Matabane family moved to a mine in the Eastern Transvaal. Her mother did washing. Lillian was noted to be the biggest crier in the neighborhood. She would cry until she fainted. At that time young as she was she was into politics encouraged by her father who hated the white rule that forced him to work in mines and she admired the bravery of Mr Sefako Makgatho at that time president of the ANC (1917).
She was sent to Kilnerton Training Institution while she was still in Standard Two. She reached the first year of the teachers' course but her father couldn't afford the fees any longer, and so she had to quit school. Lillian then went to City Deep mine hospital to train as a nurse. She later got married, but after a few years her husband, Mr Ngoyi, died.

Except for a short interlude of ballroom dancing in the competition ranks, her life slid into a quiet slow tempo. But a hectic political career began in 1952, when the ANC launched its Defiance Campaign. Mrs. Ngoyi went join a batch that went to 'defy' apartheid regulations at the General Post Office. She told inquiring officials and the police that she was writing a telegram to some cabinet ministers. The defiers were acquitted and Mrs. Ngoyi then began to organize Orlando women for Congress.
As Vice-President of the South African Federation of Women, Mrs Ngoyi was the chosen delegate to the Lausanne conference of women in Switzerland last year. Together with another African woman, she visited several European countries on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Mrs Ngoyi is the first African woman to be on the Transvaal Provincial Executive of the ANC and on the National Executive.
In 1954 she became Treasurer of the South African Non-European Council of Trade Unions. She is a member of the Women's Garment Workers' Union for the Reef, and
'My womb is shaken when they speak of Bantu Education!' is also currently Acting President of the SA Federation of Women.

Once in politics, Mrs Ngoyi knew that the nameless compulsion that had been working in her since childhood had become a reality. Those days she loved to read about pioneers who led their people to freedom. Not least, she was thrilled by the activities of Hebrew leaders in the Bible. Another thing that made a lasting impact on her was the migrant labour system as she saw men come and go between the reserves and the mines.

Her father was bitterly anti-white. Strong passion expresses itself through her too, Mrs Ngoyi's weakness lies in being highly emotional. Her strength lies in the fact that she admits it and is always prepared to be disciplined and to submit to cold logic. She also admits her weak educational background. She is therefore not much of a political thinker, but she gets down to a job in a manner that shames many a political theorist. For this woman has bundles and bundles of energy. Granite reinforced with wire. She will often begin her family washing at ten in the night - home cleanliness and sewing are a religious passion with her.
Mrs. Ngoyi is a brilliant orator. She can toss an audience on her little finger, get men grunting with shame and a feeling of smallness, and infuse everyone with renewed courage. Her speech always teems with vivid figures of speech. Mrs. Ngoyi will say: 'We don't want men who wear skirts under their trousers. If they don't want to act, let us women exchange garments with them.' Or she will say: 'We women are like hens that lay eggs for somebody to take away. That's the effect of Bantu Education.'
At an anti-pass meeting one masculine firebrand advocated violence as a political solution. Mrs. Ngoyi replied: 'Shed your own blood first and let's see what stuff it's made of.' She denounced violence as stupid and impractical. The firebrand spluttered, flickered and sat down to smoulder, feeling embarrassed.

Cuts and granite are required to lead and inspire the thousands of women who are everywhere resisting the extension of the pass system to women.