Florence Mkhize

Florence Grace Mkhize (1932 – July 10, 1999) was an anti-apartheid activist and women's movement leader. Mkhize was usually called 'Mam Flo'.

Biography Mkhize was born in 1932 in Umzumbe, Natal South Coast. She started to become aware about politics at age 16 while attending a Roman Catholic school on the South Coast. Mkhize began fighting apartheid and took part in the Defiance Campaign in 1952. A photo of her burning her passbook was taken by Ranjith Kally and is now exhibited as both art and a record of that struggle. She was subsequently banned. Despite the ban on her political activity, she used her place of work, a sewing factory which placed on Lakhani Chamber, Durban, to communicate and organise. During formulation of Freedom Charter, her bus which on the way to Kliptown for Congress of People was turned back by the police and sent back to Natal. In 1954, Mkhize with Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Fatima Meer and other women became the founding members of the Federation of South African Women. Mkhize organized women to participate in the Women's March in 1956, but was not able to go herself when the bus she was traveling on to reach Pretoria was turned back by police. She was one of thel leader from the Potato and Tobacco boycotts against industries which was colluding with apartheid in 1959. After African National Congress (ANC) was banned in 1960, as a member of South African Communist Party (SACP), she continue the struggle by joining South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) until the organization suppressed by the government. She was also one of the founding members of United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1983 and in the same year, she was mobilizing women from other racial groups with Natal Organization of Women. A building was named after her in eThekwini where revenue services are made available to customers around the city. The name of the building is Florence Mkhize Building (FMB).

Personal life She married her husband, Amos Mos Mtuno, in the 1950s and lived in Durban. They had four children: Her boys named Mandla and Thulani Khosi and her daughter Shauwn Mkhize.

Death and legacy She died of congestive heart (cardiac) failure on 10 July 1999.

In 1998 the African National Congress (ANC) Women's League awarded her their bravery medal. In 1999 Nelson Mandela awarded her the South African Military Gold Medal.