The former President of the South African Women's Federation, Mrs Lilian Ngoyi, died at her home in Johannesburg on 13 March aged 68. Her current banning order, imposed after she spoke at Braam Fischer's funeral in 1975, was due to expire in May 1980.
LILIAN NGOYI joined the Women's League of the African National Congress in 1952, moved by the sight of young boys going to jail during the Defiance Campaign. Her whole life had been a struggle against poverty; she went to work after only a year in high school to support her asthmatic father, her mother and brother. She became a skilled garment worker, and when she joined the Congress she was forty, a widow, with her own child, an adopted child, and her mother to support.
Her flair for public speaking and brilliant personality thrust her into the front ranks of political activity. In a year she was elected as president of the Women's League, and later became president of the Federation of South African Women.
A trip abroad to an international conference strengthened and deepened her commitment. She stood open-mouthed in an English street at the sight of white women scrubbing their own doorsteps. The tour abroad made a deep impression and when she returned huge audiences in the townships listened spellbound to her descriptions of her experiences for two or three hours at a time. She was a most eloquent and colourful speaker, but this and her energy as an organiser made her a target for persecution and prosecution. In 1956 she was arrested and charged in the mammoth treason trial that did not end until more than four years later. She described her worst experience, however, as 71 days in solitary confinement when she was detained under the 90-day law.
Lilian Ngoyi was placed under severe bans and restrictions that confined her to her home in Orlando Township and prohibited her from having visitors at her home. She was forced to give up her job and tried to make a living from sewing at home, although the Special Branch scared her customers away.
After eleven years of bans and house arrest the bans were not renewed. In an interview she said "I must say I had a tough time, but my spirits have not been dampened," and then she stood up and declared "You can tell my friends all over the world that this girl is still her old self, if not more mature after all the experiences. I am looking forward to the day when my children will share in the wealth of our lovely South Africa."
