MORAL ADVOCATE / HUMAN RIGHTS BYJESSIE TAYLOR joined the multitude of anti-apartheid groups under one umbrella. She was elected one of its co-presidents from her jail cell. Ma Sisulu epitomises the saying “When you strike a woman, you strike a rock.” HELEN JOSEPH Helen Fennell was born at the start of the 20th century (1905) in Sussex, England. She grew up in London and graduated with a degree in English from the University of London in 1927. Her first teaching post was in Hyderabad, India, after which she moved to Durban where she met and married dentist Billie Joseph. During the Second World War (1939-1945)
she served as an information and welfare officer in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. After the war she took a job with the Garment Workers Union and was a founder of the Congress Union of Democrats (COD), and became national secretary of the Federation of South African Women in the 1950s. In 1955, Helen was one of the leaders who read out the clauses of the Freedom Charter at the Congress of the People and one of the organisers and leaders of the Women’s March on 9 August 1956. Arrested on a charge of high treason in December 1956, banned in 1957 and placed under house arrest
in 1962, she endured many years of police persecution and assassination attempts. Helen was diagnosed with cancer in 1971 and passed away on 25 December 1992 in Johannesburg. She was buried in Avalon, the same cemetery as Lillian Ngoyi. In the year of her passing, she was awarded the ANC’s highest award, the Isitwalandwe/ Seaparankoe Medal for her devotion to the liberation struggle. Isitwalandwe means “one who wears the plumes of the rare bird” and the award is bestowed upon only the bravest of warriors. n
Rahima Moosa, Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph and Sophia Williams at the head of a crowd of 20,000 women who marched on the Union Buildings to protest Apartheid pass laws. 9 August 1956
32 | Public Sector Leaders | August 2021
