Maggie Resha

Matebello Magdeline Resha, also known as Maggie Resha (May 5, 1923 - September 2003) was a nurse as well as a member of the African National Congress and the African National Congress Women's League. She organized meetings for the adoption of the Freedom Charter in 1955.

Early life Resha was born in 1923 in Matatiele in the Eastern Cape of South Africa as the second of nine children. ‘Matabello’ is a Sesotho name which means ‘Hope’. Her second name, ‘Magdeline,’ was a name she received during her christening. She was named after her grandfather's eldest brother's wife. Maggie Resha was the daughter of Tsekiso Tsiu and Moselantja Mokhele. Resha's father Tsekiso Tsiu was the son of Moselantja Mokhele. Moselantja Mokhele, Matabello's grandmother, was the daughter of a prestigious farmer in the Eastern Cape and was married to an Anglican missionary. The father of Matabello's grandmother, her great-grandfather, Tsekiso Tsiu, was related to the royal Lesotho family.

Soon after Resha turned one, she was given to her mother's unmarried sister, Maylia, to be raised on her father's farm ‘La Grange’ in Pontseng, which was approximately seven miles from St James. Maylia, a domestic worker, raised Maggie for most of her early life. Later, she moved back with her entire family to a farming community called Klein Jonas.

Royal lineage At an early age, she learned through stories passed down by her Bafokeng ancestors for generations. She had a direct link with Moshoeshoe I, through her great-great grandfather RaTsiu and his father King Ntsukunyane. Her family believed that RaTsiu had succeeded his father Ntsukunyane as king. However, Ntsukunyane's nephew, Moshoeshoe, had also proved himself worthy of the throne according to various traditional rituals. RaTsiu then decided to overstep his son Tsiu, and gave the position to Moshoeshoe in order to lead the Basotho nation. Nonetheless, RaTsiu remained within the royal family and functioned as the young King Moshoeshoe's counselor. The Basotho people were, from then onwards, led by descendants of Moshoeshoe rather than RaTsui's direct lineage. Resha's great grandfather, Rantsiuoa, only had one daughter named Ntsiuoa, whose two sons became direct heirs. One of these sons, Malitse was Maggie's grandfather. Malitse became the first family member to convert to Christianity. He converted to Christianity while both he and his brother Mosoue worked as diamond miners in Kimberley. Malitse fathered Maggie's father, Tsekiso Tsiu.

She also organized the meetings for the adoption of the Freedom Charter in Kliptown in 1955. During the ‘State of Emergency’ in the 1960s, Maggie was recruited into the ANC's underground cell as she was often questioned by the police. In 1962 the ANC smuggled her and her children to join her husband, Robert, in exile. She stayed in Tanzania for six months in 1960 then they moved to Algeria where her husband opened an ANC office in 1963. During this time the couple printed pamphlets and distributed them in order to gain political support. She also attended international conferences representing the ANC's women's section visiting countries such as Russia and China. She became the deputy representative of the ANC in northern Africa in 1966. Then from 1968 to 1974, she was the ANC representative in the International Pan African Women's secretariat. She also attended several other conferences in order to bring awareness to the political climate in South Africa. These conferences were the Women's International Federation, Organization of African Union as well as Afro-Asian solidarity conferences. She moved to London in 1975 and worked as the deputy chairperson of both the ANC's London branch as well as the ANC's Women's section.

She returned to South Africa in 1999 after her husband died in London. That same year she wrote an autobiography "My Life in the Struggle: Mangoana tsoara thipa ka bohaleng".

Honors On April 22, 2008 she was awarded the Order of Luthuli in Silver for “… her excellent contribution to the struggle against the apartheid system in South Africa and fighting gender injustices in society”.