Florence Moposho

Florence Mophosho (1921 – 9 August 1985) was a South African politician and anti-apartheid activist of the African National Congress (ANC). A stalwart of the ANC Women's League, she was a member of the ANC National Executive Committee from 1975 until her death in 1985.

After joining the ANC in 1952 in Alexandra, Mophosho was involved in organising several historic anti-apartheid protests inside South Africa, including the 1956 Women's March and the 1957 Alexandra bus boycott. From 1964 until her death, she lived in exile with the ANC, rising to prominence as the organisation's representative to the Women's International Democratic Federation and then, from 1971, as the head of the ANC Women's Section.

Early life and activism Mophosho was born in 1921 in Alexandra, a township outside Johannesburg in the former Transvaal. Her father was chronically ill and her mother, though trained as a teacher, worked as a domestic worker. The eldest of three siblings, Mophosho left school at Standard Six to enter the workforce, first as a domestic worker and then as a worker in a garment factory.

She joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1952, Over the next decade, Mophosho travelled extensively to represent the ANC abroad, including at the All-Africa Women's Conference of 1972, and she received military training in Lusaka in 1978. and, with her secretary Gertrude Shope, she established Voice of the Women, a publication for ANC women. In addition, she was co-opted onto the ANC National Executive Committee in 1975. gaining direct election in 1985. In April 2007, she was awarded the Order of Luthuli by Thabo Mbeki, the second post-apartheid president, for:Her excellent contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle, braving police harassment to mobilise society for a just and democratic South Africa, and striving for gender equality.