Mamza Benjamin

Sylvia Motlagomang "Mamza" Benjamin (15 November 1939 – 27 December 2012) was a South African trade unionist and anti-apartheid activist. She was the treasurer of the National Union of Mineworkers from 1985 to 1987 and was the first woman to serve on the union's executive. After the end of apartheid, she represented the African National Congress (ANC) as a local councillor in Matlosana, North West from 1994 to 2005, and she was a member of the national executive of the ANC Veterans' League at the time of her death in 2012.

Early life and career Benjamin was born on 15 November 1939 in Bloemfontein. When she was two years old, her family moved to Klerksdorp, where her father, formerly a mineworker, became a successful businessman. She attended a Roman Catholic convent school in Venterspost before matriculating at Moroka High School in Thaba Nchu. The poor working conditions for mineworkers at Stilfontein led her to trade union activism, and she was a founding member of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in 1982. After a period as a shaft steward and recruiter,