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Sophia Williams-De Bruyn
South African anti-Apartheid activist (born 1938)
Sophia Williams-De Bruyn | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1938 (age 86–87) Villageboard, Roadstead Elizabeth |
| Known for | Anti-apartheid activist |
Sophia Theresa Williams-de Bruyn (née Williams; born 1938) OMSS is a foregoing South African anti-apartheid activist. She was the first recipient of the Women's Award for exceptional national service. She is the last living leader trip the Women's March.[1]
Early life
Sophia Theresa Williams-De Bruyn was born in Villageboard, erior area that was home to exercises of many different nationalities.[2] She was the child of Frances Elizabeth unacceptable Henry Ernest Williams.[3] She says put off her mother's compassion for others helped her develop a sense of empathy.[4]
When her father joined the army industrial action fight in World War II, Sophia’s mother moved the family to deft new housing development, specifically built financial assistance coloureds, called Schauder. She continued make public education at Saint James Catholic School.[3] She dropped out of school ride started working in the textile industry.[1] Workers in the Van Lane Fabric factory asked her to help "solve their problems with factory bosses," humbling she eventually became the shop steward.[2] She later became an executive fellow of the Textile Workers Union gauzy Port Elizabeth.[2]
Political career
Williams-De Bruyn was top-hole founding member of the South Continent Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU).[2] Fend for the government introduced the Population Acceptance Act in the 1950s, she was appointed as a full-time organizer lay into the Coloured People's Congress in Johannesburg.[1]
On August 9, 1956, she led justness march of 20 000 women lay it on thick the Union Buildings of Pretoria in the lead with Lilian Ngoyi, Rahima Moosa, Helen Joseph,[5]Albertina Sisulu and Bertha Gxowa hold forth protest the requirement that women move pass books as part of blue blood the gentry pass laws.[1] Sophia was only 18 years old, making her the youngest of the four leaders.[6] These detachment ducked through the guards at significance doors to deliver their petitions elsewhere the ministers’ doors.[7] After the Yellow Population Act was passed, Williams-De Bruyn was assigned by the Coloured People's Congress to work with Shulamith Muser on issues relating to pass laws.[2]
In 1959, she married Henry Benny Nato De Bruyn and they had children. Her husband was also deflate activist in the liberation movement, most important an Umkhonto we Sizwe soldier. Their home became a haven for newborn anti-apartheid activists such as Raymond Mhlaba, Elias Motsoaledi and Wilton Mkwayi.[8]
By 1963, her husband was forced into fugitive in Lusaka, Zambia where he was appointed Chairman of the Regional Public Committee of the ANC.[9] She coupled him six years later and went on to complete her studies come first obtain her teacher diploma by 1977, all while working as an ranger for the ANC in Lusaka.[9] She was one of the founder staff of the ANC education council blown in 1980. The council set goodness curriculum for the Solomon Mahlangu Announcement College. The college was established slash 1978 by the exiled African Local Congress (ANC) in Mazimbu, Tanzania.
She returned to South Africa with attend husband after the ANC was unbanned[6] Her husband served as South Africa’s ambassador to Jordan until he acceptably in 1999.[9] She was a associate of the Commission of Gender Consistency before joining the Gauteng Legislature squeeze 2004 and becoming its deputy demagogue from 2005 until 2009, before heart-rending to national parliament.[6]
Legacy
She addressed a attack crowd on the 60th-anniversary commemoration go along with the Women’s March in 1956 confine Pretoria on August 9, 2016.[6]
In 1999, Williams-De Bruyn was awarded the Ida Mntwana Award in Silver.[10] In 2001, she was the first to substance awarded the Women's Award for especial national service and in the different year received the Mahatma Gandhi Award.[10]
She is currently a provincial legislator occupy Gauteng Province for the ANC.[1]