Margaret Rajbally

Sunklavathy "Margaret" Rajbally (born 25 February 1932) is a retired South African politician and former trade unionist from KwaZulu-Natal. A garment worker by occupation, she was an organiser for the Garment Workers' Industrial Union in Durban during apartheid. She became a founding member of the Minority Front (MF) in 1993 and represented the party in the National Assembly for two terms from 1999 to 2009.

Early life and union career Rajbally was born on 25 February 1932. Later classified as Indian under apartheid, she was the youngest of nine children; her father was a taxi driver. Though raised in Edendale outside Pietermaritzburg, she left home as a teenager to complete her schooling at Sastri College in Durban. In 1953, she took up a position as an organiser at the Garment Workers' Industrial Union.

Political career By the time of her retirement from union organising, Rajbally had struck up a friendship with Amichand Rajbansi, who was then a member of the House of Delegates; they had met at a public meeting in Durban in the early 1990s and she had agreed to help him prepare to form a political party, particularly by introducing him to labour audiences.

From 1996 to 1999, Rajbally represented the MF as a ward councillor and deputy mayor in Durban's eThekwini Municipality.

Rajbally left Parliament after the 2009 general election. She remained active in the MF, and she stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the party in the 2014 general election.

Retirement and personal life Rajbally had retired from frontline politics by 2017, though she remained connected to the MF. When the party was relaunched in 2018, she was elected to its national executive committee. She is also an area coordinator in her neighbourhood of Chatsworth. She has children and grandchildren.